Cheetah Medical's NICOM® Technology Featured in Duke Anesthesiology Study; New Findings of Efficacy to Guide Intraoperative Goal-Directed Fluid Therapy

TEL-AVIV, Israel and VANCOUVER, June 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Results from a study validating Cheetah Medical's non-invasive NICOM system for use in surgery to guide fluid management will be presented at the 2012 Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society Annual Meeting in Quebec City, June 15^th - 17^th.  This new study complements a strong body of evidence that demonstrates that when anesthesiologists base delivery of intravenous fluids on repetitive measurements of cardiac output, they are able to significantly reduce a host of complications associated with surgery and the length of hospital stay.

This guided approach to deliver fluids is known as Goal-Directed Fluid Therapy (GDFT). While providing significant clinical and economic benefits, adoption of GDFT has lagged hopes, leading many anesthesiologists and hospitals to seek a non-invasive and scalable means to conduct GDFT. The study validated NICOM, a totally non-invasive system to perform GDFT.

The Cheetah NICOM has been validated to provide highly accurate continuous hemodynamic information that can be reliably used to guide fluid management of critically ill patients. In this study, Duke Anesthesia researchers used Cheetah Medical's non-invasive NICOM^® hemodynamic monitoring system alongside the conventional method, transesophageal Doppler, which involves insertion of a probe into the patient's esophagus to acquire hemodynamic information. Study investigators compared readings obtained in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery with the traditional system to a totally non-invasive approach based on NICOM. In addition, after dividing the 99 study patients into two groups - one receiving fluid management using trans-esophageal Doppler and the other receiving NICOM-based fluid management -  investigators evaluated both groups' post-operative complication profiles and length of hospital stay.

The investigators found a consistent and significant correlation between both devices' readings and directions on fluid management. The groups were also no different with respect to patient recovery profiles, complication rates and length of hospital stay. Moreover, results indicated that the trans-esophageal Doppler was twice as likely to fail to provide readings during the surgical procedure for technical reasons as compared to the non-invasive NICOM.

"The results from this study add to a large body of evidence showing that perioperative Goal-Directed Fluid Therapy should be considered in patients undergoing major surgery or in high risk patients. This strategy improves patient outcomes and reduces length of hospital stay," said Tong J. Gan, MD Professor of Anesthesiology and Vice Chair for Clinical Research at Duke University Medical Center and the study's Principal Investigator. "A totally non-invasive monitor makes intraoperative hemodynamic monitoring much simpler during surgery and may therefore allow wider adoption of GDFT to more patients."

In addition to compelling clinical advantages to the patient, GDFT has been shown to deliver marked cost reductions and efficiency improvements to the healthcare system. As a result, numerous healthcare authorities recommend adoption of GDFT protocols, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the UK National Health Service (NHS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). However, close to 20 years after the significant value of GDFT protocols was established using Doppler probes which are inserted into the patient's esophagus, GDFT is used in just a fraction of major surgical procedures. In a recent survey of hundreds of American and European anesthesiologists, more than 90% conveyed that their current operative fluid management could be improved^[1]. The study found a considerable gap between evidence regarding the benefits of GDFT and the clinical utilization of invasive technologies that limit practical implementation.

"We are pleased with the Duke study findings and hope they will encourage use of Cheetah's NICOM system in providing GDFT to advance the quality of care for significantly more patients who are not benefiting from these approaches today," said Yoav Avidor, MD, CEO of Cheetah Medical. "Further, we believe that our technology may better enable hospitals to deal with the rising costs of treating certain surgical complications that can be mitigated with GDFT and empower standardization as more clinicians deliver this state of the art clinical practice."

About Cheetah Medical

Cheetah Medical's NICOM^® Noninvasive Cardiac Output and Hemodynamic Monitoring System uses the company's proprietary BIOREACTANCE^® Technology to deliver continuous, accurate, noninvasive cardiac output (CO) and other vital hemodynamic monitoring parameters, useful for fluid management and drug titration. The system is US FDA cleared and CE Marked, and since its commercial launch in 2008 has been adopted by a growing number of clinicians worldwide. Cheetah Medical headquarters is located in Tel-Aviv, Israel and its United States headquarters is located in Vancouver, Washington. For more information, visit our website at http://www.cheetah-medical.com.

1. Cannesson M, Pestel G, Ricks C, et al. Hemodynamic monitoring and bmanagement in patients undergoing high risk surgery: a survey among North American and European anesthesiologists. Critical Care, 2011;15(4):R197.

For further information contact:        

Kristina Frey
[email protected]
+972-317-489-8922

SOURCE Cheetah Medical Ltd