Autologous Blood Transfusion Device

Description

Obstetric hemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal mortality, accounts for up to 44% of maternal deaths in regions of West and EastSub-Saharan Africa; 26% of these deaths can be attributed to the paucity of donated blood available for emergency transfusions. This situation complicates the efforts of clinicians to treat ruptured ectopic pregnancy,which is the largest contributor to mortality in the first trimester. Auto-transfusion is a life-saving intraoperative blood salvage procedure that is routinely performed using automated blood salvage devices in high-income countries. Such devices are inappropriate for low-income countries owing to their cost and complexity (i.e. difficult to maintain), among other factors. Furthermore, effective manual blood salvage solutions including the soup ladle method and the Tanguieta funnel developed for use in low-income countries can be labor intensive and require numerous disposables.

Autologous blood transfusion device CAD model

The goal of this project is the development of a blood salvage device that can be operated by a health care provider to collect blood from a hemorrhaging patient (as occurs during ruptured ectopic pregnancy), filter this blood, and re-transfuse it back into the patient. This project hopes to help address the problem of minimal donated blood and reduce the likelihood of infections and other complications that could occur due to current blood salvaging procedures.

Sisu Global Health, a medical device company for emerging markets, has developed this project into a device called Hemafuse. The clinical prototypes are being manufactured in US with medical grade materials and packaging, and the devices are being tested to international standards for safety.

Find out more about them here.

Sisu Global Health designed Hemafuse, a handheld, mechanical device for intraoperative autotransfusion of blood collected from an internal hemorrhage, meant to replace or augment donor blood in emergency situations.