Prostate Cancer Patients Treated with Brachytherapy Retain Urinary, Bowel Quality

Prostate cancer patients treated with Cesium-131 brachytherapy maintained their urinary- and bowel-related quality of life years afterward, according to a study. While patients reported a decline in these quality of life measures immediately after brachytherapy, they achieved a full recovery within six months. Brachytherapy involves inserting radioactive seeds in or near tumor to kill it. The research, “Long-term Quality of Life in Prostate Cancer Patients Treated with Cesium-131,” was published in the Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. “This study reinforces the position of Cesium 131 as an effective, patient-friendly treatment for localized prostate cancer,” Bill Cavanagh, chief scientific officer of the brachytherapy company IsoRay, said in a news release. “This is especially important as multiple studies are emerging that strongly suggest that the inclusion of brachytherapy must be considered for the treatment of high-risk prostate cancer – the toughest localized prostate cancer to cure.” Read more.

Source: Prostate Cancer News Today, May 4, 2017

Pixie Scientific Announces U.S. Commercial Launch of Its Smart Pads

Pixie Scientific announced today that it has completed the FDA registration for Pixie Smart Pads and has begun shipping to Early Access customers. The Class I medical device utilizes a patented sensor and software platform to unobtrusively monitor incontinent seniors for an analyte commonly associated with urinary tract infections (UTIs). Pixie Scientific is a healthcare platform technology company focused on improving outcomes by connecting populations at risk with unobtrusive health monitoring—a field Pixie refers to as Connected Care. Pixie’s patented platform consists of a biosensor, a mobile app, and secure cloud architecture which utilizes machine learning for analysis and disseminates information to remote care teams. Clinicians can use this information, along with other symptoms, to order additional patient evaluation or more specific diagnostics in a timely manner—which may lower the rate of co-morbidities and hospital admissions due to UTIs and improve antibiotic stewardship. Read more.

Source: PRNewswire, May 3, 2017

ConvaTec Releases New Fecal Management System in US

Global medical technology company ConvaTecGroup announced the US launch of the Flexi-Seal PROTECT Fecal Management System on Tuesday, following receipt of 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration. The FTSE 100 firm said Flexi-Seal PROTECT FMS was the latest addition to the company’s “market-leading range” of advanced systems developed to manage acute fecal incontinence, and help to reduce the associated risks of skin breakdown and spread of C. difficile infection. Read more.

Source: digitallook.com, May 2, 2017

AUA & SUFU Release Guideline on Treatment of Stress Urinary Incontinence

With nearly 50 percent of women in the United States experiencing symptoms of stress urinary incontinence (SUI), the American Urological Association (AUA), a leading global urology association and the Society of Urodynamics, Female Pelvic Medicine and Urogenital Reconstruction (SUFU), the premier urological subspecialty society dedicated to improving the art and science of female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery, recently released a joint evidence-based clinical guideline on the surgical treatment of SUI in women. SUI is defined as the involuntary leakage of urine due to increased abdominal pressure, which can be caused by such activities as physical exercise, sneezing, laughing or coughing. Approximately half of all women experience SUI symptoms during their lifetime, and many of these women are sufficiently bothered by their symptoms to seek treatment from a physician. Pelvic floor muscle exercises and other nonsurgical treatments can be effective therapies, but many women choose to undergo surgery to treat their SUI symptoms. Read more.

Source: PRNewswire, April 18, 2017

SCA to Split Into Two Companies

SCA, a company know in the HME industry for its hygiene and incontinence products, such as TENA, will be splitting into two companies, SCA and Essity, with Essity being the company working in the healthcare market. SCA was founded 1929 in Sweden as a forest products company, and over the years the company not only expanded into the international market, but diversified its range of offerings to include incontinence products and other offerings. Most recently, it acquired well-known BSN medical. Eventually, SCA’s health offerings began to eclipse its forest products division. As of 2016, 86 percent of SCA serves the global hygiene and health market, while only 14 percent offers forest products. Moreover, synergies between the two operations have diminished over time, according to SCA. Read more.

Source: HME Business, April 13, 2017

U.S. Guidelines Relax Opposition to Prostate Cancer Screening

An influential physician task force backed by the U.S. government is softening its opposition to routine prostate cancer screening. In proposed guidelines released today, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force advised men aged 55 to 69 to discuss the pros and cons of screening with their doctors rather than avoiding it altogether. The task force continued to recommend against a blood test for prostate specific antigen (PSA) in men 70 and older, concluding the potential harms of routine screening still outweigh the benefits for this age group. Since the last guidelines came out in 2012, new evidence has emerged suggesting that PSA tests may help lower the odds that tumors spread to other parts of the body or prove fatal for men aged 55 to 69, said task force chair Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. New evidence also suggests it’s becoming more common for doctors to skip aggressive treatments like surgery or radiation for men with low-risk prostate tumors in favor of doing periodic tests to see if tumors grow, an approach known as active surveillance. Read more.

Source: Reuters, April 11, 2017

Majority of Incontinence Treatments Deliver Poor Results

Surgery is the most reliable method of treatment for incontinence – curing the condition in just over eight in ten cases; other types of treatment, meanwhile, do not deliver the same kind of success. These are the findings of a comprehensive systematic overview of cure rates for the treatment of incontinence around the world during the last ten years. “Unfortunately we are not actually curing the condition in that many cases. Surgery aside, the results delivered are poor. And the problems are only going to get worse in the future because the population, as we know, is aging,” says Ian Milsom, Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Sahlgrenska Academy and Head of the Gothenburg Continence Research Center (GCRC). Read more.

Source: Science Daily, April 4, 2017

Principle Business Enterprises, Inc. Acquires Absorbent Products Company, Inc.

Principle Business Enterprises (PBE), Inc., a technology leader in moisture management products, announces the acquisition of the business assets and operations of Absorbent Products Company, Inc. of Bowling Green, Ohio. “The acquisition of APCI is consistent with our mission, by allowing us to enter new markets and expand our ability to provide the highest quality products and services to our customers and business partners,” says Chuck Stocking, Co-CEO of PBE. “APCI employs a technical workforce with skills that complement the current PBE team. They also have valuable production machinery that is needed to fuel PBE’s current growth in the incontinence and personal care marketplace.” Stocking adds “This acquisition is also great for Northwest Ohio because it keeps at least 35 jobs in the area that might otherwise be moved out of the state or possibly out of the country.” Read more.

Source: PRNewswire, April 4, 2017

Trendlines Gets Grant for Urinary Incontinence Device

Trendlines Labs is to receive a grant from the Singapore Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation for the development and clinical trial of its stress urinary incontinence (SUI) product, which is being developed in partnership with the Singapore General Hospital. The 50 women in the trial, expected to start mid-2017 at the hospital, will provide feedback on the product. The foundation will provide up to 50 percent of the $400,000 the partners need to fund the final product development and clinical trial. Trendlines Labs, the innovation arm of The Trendlines Group Ltd., the Israeli venture fund and tech accelerator firm, has developed a nonsurgical, non-pharmaceutical solution to mitigate SUI, a form of incontinence that affects approximately 15 million women in the US alone, according to the Women’s Health Foundation. SUI is caused by weak sphincter muscles or weak pelvic floors, and can occur when there is abdominal stress on the pelvic organs — the bladder, vagina, uterus, or rectum. Read more.

Source: Times of Israel, April 3, 2017

A Revolutionary Design in Pelvic Floor Weakness Treatment

It’s more common than hay fever, yet women just don’t talk about pelvic floor weakness, a condition resulting in intermittent urinary leakage. It affects one in three women in varying degrees of severity — 82% consider their symptoms severe, while 70% wear absorbent pads to deal with it. Yet, 68% of women never seek medical help. “Women are embarrassed. It’s called stress urinary incontinence and they associate the word ‘incontinence’ with old ladies being wet all the time,” says Dr Ruth Maher, an associate professor at the Department of Physical Therapy, Creighton University in Omaha. Maher is one of the original four inventors of recently launched innovotherapy, a non-invasive treatment for pelvic floor weakness. Innovotherapy directly targets pelvic floor weakness — the root cause of urinary leaks — unlike many other treatments which simply mask symptoms. Read more.

Source: The Irish Examiner, April 3, 2017