The Israeli innovation can help prevent acute kidney injury, which affects 60 percent of all ICU patients and 10 percent of all hospital admissions.
By United with Israel Staff
An Israeli company called Serenno Medical developed a unique device that continuously measures urine output (OU) in hospitalized patients, helping to detect and prevent acute kidney injury (AKI), the company announced last week.
Called Sentinel, the device attaches to existing hospital monitoring systems and can save lives by detecting even small changes in kidney function, regardless of patient position and even during surgical procedures.
AKI affects about 19 million patients worldwide each year. It is a common malady of hospitalized patients with nearly 60 percent of all ICU patients and 10 percent of those admitted to the hospital affected. Once it develops, it is difficult to treat and irreversible.
AKI causes 300,000 deaths a year in the US alone, It “triples mortality rates, quadruples risk of [hospital] readmission and increases length of stay by 50 percent,” according to a Serenno statement.
Sentinel works in synergy with any catheter and bag and requires a short and simple, non-invasive installation.
Since the device automatically and continuously measures urine output, flow and volume in real time, not only are busy hospital staff freed from manually checking this important vital sign, they are immediately informed of any changes in patient status. This leads to immediate treatment, saving lives.
“Urine output measurement is a key parameter to assess kidney function,” said Prof. Manu Malbrain of University Hospital Brussels. “However, correct urine output determination is often difficult at the bedside and is usually only performed intermittently and manually. Moreover, the kidneys are often the first organ to stop functioning properly, therefore continuous urine output measurement would be a valuable tool in the management of critically ill, unstable patients.”
Prof. Malbrain was the catalyst for this medical innovation. He approached Serenno’s founder Noam Hadas, asking the company to find a way to monitor Intra-Abdominal Pressure (IAP) in ICU patients.
The system was clinically tested in three ICU units in Israel’s Sheba and Rabin Medical centers. The company found the device provides over 96 percent accuracy and reliability.
“The successful results of our first clinical trial will allow the company to move forward to manufacturing the device for commercial usage and enable us to bring this best-in-class product to the global medical markets,” Serenno co-founder Tomer Lark recently told The Jerusalem Post.
Lark added, “We expect to receive FDA clearance for the system during 2020 and believe that our patent pending device has the potential to become the standard-of-care in the OR and ICU, benefiting millions of patients around the world.”