Israeli medical device company, Hospitech Respiration, has developed a respiratory guard system which reduces ventilation complications in intubated patients and minimises the exposure of clinical teams to contamination. 

The AnapnoGuard consists of an automatic control unit (AG100s) and a proprietary multi lumen endotracheal tube, which prevents complications such as hospital acquired pneumonia, ventilator associated pneumonia and injury to the trachea.

More than 600 people have been treated with the device, including ventilated COVID-19 patients at the Tongji University Hospital in China’s Hubei Province, the original epicentre of the pandemic.

In Israel, it has been used in several leading hospitals, including Rambam MC, the largest academic centre in northern Israel. It has also been sent to two hospitals in southern Italy.

WHY IT MATTERS

The AnapnoGuard device provides automated airway cuff pressure management and automated evacuation of the subglottic secretions, reducing the likelihood of pulmonary infections and the development of pneumonia that can tend to develop in ventilated patients, including severe COVID-19 ventilated patients. 

In cases where an infection has already developed, it alleviates the symptoms and helps to shorten the recovery time.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Hospitech Respiration also offers other airway management products, including AG Cuffill, a disposable manometer for airway cuff pressure management. 

Meanwhile, the Sheba Medical Center and the Ichilov Hospital at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel have been working with predictive analytics company CLEW to identify respiratory deterioration in advance, enabling early interventions for COVID-19 patients. 

ON THE RECORD

Prof. Gil Bolotin, director of the department of cardiac surgery at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel said: “For the past two years, my department has been using the AnapnoGuard system when treating high-risk ventilated cardiac patients. During this time, we have seen a significant reduction in the number of patients who developed lung and pulmonary infections following intubation.”

Yoav Venkert, CEO of Hospitech Respiration said: “The outbreak of COVID-19 has highlighted the need for hospitals to find new and innovative solutions to medical challenges they are facing. Right at the beginning of the outbreak, we responded to a spike in the demand for airway management solutions to treat coronavirus patients in intensive care units by offering to provide our devices pro bono to help medical teams treat ventilated coronavirus patients in Israel.

“While the COVID-19 outbreak created a massive surge in demand for ventilators, which is expected to increase the ventilators market by 400% in 2020 in comparison to last year, the number of pulmonary and airway complications associated with the use of ventilators is expected to negatively affect the ventilators market growth. The Anapnoguard device provides the best solution to address these complications.”