Raumedic Nominated for Medica Excellence Award

Measuring brain pressure has never been easy. Traditional methods have involved drilling a small hole into the skull and inserting a sensor-tipped catheter to monitor the pressure on cerebrospinal fluid that fills the brain’s four ventricles and the subarachnoid space surrounding it. While effective, this procedure is less than ideal for patients, who risk both infection and tissue damage as well as limited mobility (intercranial pressure monitoring, for the most part, is performed in hospitals, with patients tethered to machines).

Advances in technology, however, are significantly reducing those risks, giving patients with traumatic brain injuries or conditions such as hydrocephalus syndrome better protection against infection and independence from inconvenient monitoring systems. A telemetry system developed by Raumedic AG, for example, measures intercranial pressure (ICP) wirelessly through a reader placed on the skin that transmits data via RFID (radio frequency identification).

Raumedic developed its telemetry system in conjunction with the Neurosurgery Department at Saarland University Hospital in Homburg-Saar, Germany. The system, which made its debut in mid-2010 at Saarland University Hospital and the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Mainz, Germany, is one of 14 inventions/technological innovations that were nominated for the new Medica Excellence Award. Nominees were chosen in four categories for innovative solutions that helped improve the performance of a hospital or medical care center. The award was given out during a gala dinner on Nov. 17 at the Congress Center Düsseldorf, at the end of the second day of Medica 2011 World Forum for Medicine, a trade fair that runs through Nov. 19 in Düsseldorf.

Dubbed the world’s “first cordless ICP management system,” Raumedic’s technology gauges ICP pressure, oxygen partial pressure in the parenchyma and brain temperature reliably, quickly and accurately, according to the company. And while executives have touted the system’s simplicity and its life-enhancing potential, its most promising feature is the data it provides to doctors considering implanting a shunt valve to drain fluid from the brain.

ICP data is vital to successful and long-lasting hydrocephalus therapy, medical experts claim. The amount of fluid drained is based on ICP values; therefore, the data derived from cerebral pressure measurements must be precise in order to prevent severe brain damage in patients.

Doctors using Raumedic’s ICP system place a micro-chip catheter fitted with a sensor tip into the parenchyma area of the brain. The plate-shaped ceramic housing then is placed on top of the cranium dome, housing the catheter below the scalp and providing a natural infection barrier for the patient. The catheter transmits data to a recording unit, which saves the information and passes it on to a personal computer or laptop through a USB connection. After the measurements are taken, the catheter is removed.

“On account of this new technology, the quality of life of the patient is improved,” a news release from Münchberg, Germany-based Raumedic read. “At the same time, the treating doctor receives real values on the various strain situations by the mobility of the patient, and thus can adapt the therapy in an ideal manner.”