SAFER INJECTION SYSTEM FOR REGIONAL ANAESTHESIA (SAFIRA)

Dr Peter Young, Dr Emad Fawzy, Dr Joseph Carter and Dr John Gibson

Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust

Award Amount: £80,000

Award Duration: 3 months

Background

Regional anaesthesia is directed at a specific region of the body to allow a surgical operation or provide post-operative pain relief. In 2012, there were over 6 million regional anaesthetic nerve blocks performed per year throughout the EU and US. Current regional anaesthesia practice requires two operators: an anaesthetist who holds an ultrasound scanner and uses this to guide the needle tip placement and an assistant to inject the anaesthetic solution at a required pressure. Studies have shown that the assistant finds it difficult to judge the pressure correctly and less than 4% of anaesthetists are confident their assistants are applying the correct pressure. High pressure can cause damage to nerve fascicles, with serious nerve damage in up to 1% of procedures and transient nerve damage in up to 8-10% of cases.

Technology

SAFIRA provides a simpler, quicker and cheaper method to inject regional anaesthetic agents and reduces the risks associated with standard procedures. SAFIRA replaces the need for an assistant and allows the anaesthetist to control the entire delivery of anaesthetic. Safira has user-friendly actuator controls on the needle holder and limits the pressure upon injection to mitigate the risk of irreversible nerve damage. Currently, there is a functional prototype of the SAFIRA system, that has been tested ex-vivo, and is undergoing further development for future application in the clinical settings.

MTA support

With support from the MTA award, the team have been able to continue the early development of the SAFIRA system, including sourcing potential pump vendors, as well as securing a granted patent in the US. The MTA award was successfully completed in July 2018 with the work carried out under the MTA allowing the team to secure a suitable commercialisation partner.

Future work

Moving forward, SAFIRA has entered into agreement with a technology development partner to continue the development of the SAFIRA system. The goal is to deliver the SAFIRA system to market by 2021 to significantly reduce the problems that arise from regional anaesthetic blocks and provide a disruptive solution to this unmet clinical need.

The Queen Elizabeth HospitalKing’s Lynn

NHS Foundation Trust

A Joint Venture Partnership