Low Cost Image Guidance for Improved Vessel Cannulation in Pediatric Patients

Clear Guide MedicalIncSummary The use of ultrasound for placement of many IVs in pediatric cases has significantly enhanced the success of Central Vein Catheterizationsandquot CVCsandquotalthough ultrasound can often be hard for nonspecialists to useAlthough ultrasound guidance can certainly facilitate vascular accessit takes practice and experience to master the real time ultrasoundfree hand techniqueThe value of this SBIR project is to use technology to broaden the number of clinicians who can safely and quickly perform these important proceduresthereby also reducing hospital costs by freeing up Interventional Radiology or Anesthesia specialistsThis application describes the technological research plan to address key technical product developments to adapt the FDA cleared SCENERGY to the pediatric market for CVCs and to obtain clinical data to demonstrate that the addition of the needle guidance technology increases the accuracy and speed of non specialist in vessel cannulationPublic health implications of this proposal include reducing the number of attempts to cannulate children as well as the speed with which this is accomplishedThis reduces the psychological stress of patients and their parentsMore importantlythe number of needle insertions is correlated with complicationsso a reduction in needle insertions complications has both commercial and non commercial importanceFinallyby broadening the number of clinicians able to successfully perform CVCsthis proposal ameliorates health disparities that arise from access to care limitations Project Narrative It has been shown that using a guidance system can help less experienced clinicians successfully cannulate veins in adultsWe propose to adapt the FDA cleared SCENERGY needle guidance to the pediatric market for vessel cannulations because these are very challenging in this populationand mostly specialists are called upon to perform these cannulationsUsing real time ultrasound with this needle guidance is expected to enhance the skills and confidence of lessexperienced cliniciansthereby enabling a more diverse group of clinicians to perform these procedures and possibly reducing hospital costs