Uroshield

Long term catheters serve as a good environment for bacteria, building of a biofilm and resulting urinary tract infections. Infections due to the catheter are one of the most frequent iatrogenic complications and can lead to increased mortality, long hospital stays and increased medical costs for the service provider.

UroShield is the first product, that uses the known therapeutic effects of ultrasound to avoid infections of long-term catheters. Clinical studies showed, that the ultrasonic waves generated by the UroShield device travel through the catheters and lead to a significant decrease of catheter-related adverse events.

How does Uroshield work?

UroShield consists out of two components: A single use clip, which is mounted on the catheter outside the body and a handy, wearable and battery powered device. Low frequency ultrasonic waves are sent along the inner and the outer area of the catheter. These superficial waves avoid the adhesion of bacteria on the catheter and therefore the building of biofilms.

If a biofilm is present, the biomatrix can be hardly penetrated. Ultrasonic waves are able to break the biofilm to enable to insert antibiotics. This enables the antibiotic effect leading to a reduced amount of required medication.

Other independent studies of leading universities investigated, that UroShield improves the immune system to fight against biofilms.

Literature

Moran Kopel, Elena Degtyar and Ehud Banin
“Surface acoustic waves increase the susceptibility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms to antibiotic treatment”
Biofouling Vol. 27, No. 7, August 2011, 701–710

Moran Kopel, Elena Degtyar, Jona Zumeris and Ehud Banin
“Treatment of biofilms using surface acoustic wave”