Breakthrough Technology to Make Wounds Heal Faster

Published on Wednesday, 08 September 2010 00:00

By Jamese Hilliard

Ingenious Technologies Corporation has developed a new technology with the potential to radically change wound care therapy. The O₂ACE-Sys™ (Oxygen Augmented Controlled-Environment System; pronounced OASIS) system is designed to accelerate wound healing while reducing costs.

The incidence of chronic wounds In the United States is approximately 5 to 7 million per year, and the annual cost associated with management of these wounds is more than $20 billion, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). AHRQ also notes that chronic wounds are a significant source of morbidity, lead to considerable disability, and are associated with increased mortality. Consequently, they have a substantial impact on public health and the expenditure of healthcare resources.

Current standards of therapy for chronic wounds include: debridement (removal of dead tissue), hyperbaric oxygen (HBO), negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT), and dressings. NPWT uses controlled suction to assist in difficult wound closure with by increasing blood flow and potentially decreasing wound bacterial burden. It is tedious to apply and not indicated in a variety of conditions including presence of necrotic tissue. HBO therapy places entire patient within chamber for 90 minutes once or twice per day for a total of 40 sessions at a cost of around $1500/session. This therapy requires protracted treatment in order to induce up-regulation of receptors and growth factors. There are limitations and contraindications to this therapy as well.

O₂ACE-Sys™ is a stand-alone portable system with two main components: 1) a clear-view disposable chamber that is applied over the wound and serves as a dressing substitute [fig 1] and 2) a reusable “smart pump” that controls the microenvironment within the chamber. The pump is capable of delivering enzymes, antibiotics, NPWT and topical HBO.

Some of the advantages of O₂ACE-Sys™ include continuous direct visualization of wound progression; reduction in the frequency of painful dressing changes; decreased risk of infection and flexible delivery of customized therapies, all of which frees up skilled nursing time.

According to Dr. Edward Lin, founder and CEO of Ingenious Technologies Corporation, the inspiration for this invention came about when “I saw how tedious, painful, cumbersome and limited the existing NPWT systems were: the need to trim dressing to the exact geometry of the wound, the pain and setback in healing with the disruption of granulation tissue with each frequent dressing change and the lack of provision to provide oxygen supplementation to address the fundamental hypoxia in wound tissue. I therefore created a system that is capable of overcoming the deficiencies of various disparate systems out there and bring all the therapies together to achieve synergistic benefits in one package and made it user friendly and versatile.“

The O₂ACE-Sys™ chamber is designed for use in hospitals as well as in the home-care setting. All units have ports (Luer-lock type) that can be capped off if unused. Dr. Lin envisions the full spectrum of therapies could be delivered, as needed even when the unit is used at home. Currently there is one size that will fit over a majority of wounds. Later on, units with different sizes and shapes for more specialized application will be introduced.

O₂ACE-Sys™ is now in the early stages of development, though in laboratory studies, the device demonstrated a dramatic improvement in the resolution of burns in as little as 2-3 hours compared to no treatment [fig 3]. Once funding is secured, Dr. Lin anticipates being able to have small-scale trials completed and early model product FDA approved within 18 months. Larger scale trials with smart pumps to demonstrate and quantify definitive superiority should take about 3 years.

The O₂ACE-Sys™ wound care concept—represents a major paradigm shift—and has won a citation in the Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge sponsored by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Time magazine and The History Channel. Updates on this new development are eagerly awaited.

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