RemovAL

There are over 320,000 colorectal resection surgeries performed annually in the United States. One of the most devastating complications associated with these surgeries is an anastomotic leak, which causes digestive contents and fecal matter to spill into the abdominal cavity. The spillage causes infection in the surrounding tissue, resulting in agonizing pain, septic shock, and even death. Every year, over 30,000 patients suffer from anastomotic leak, and over 7,000 patients die as a result. Although some innovations have attempted to address anastomotic leak, they have either not gained widespread adoption or have been removed from the market. Difficult deployment methods, complicated fixation mechanisms, and high migration rates have been cited by physicians to be the primary reasons behind these previous device failures. MedConnect is developing RemovAL: an intraluminal barrier to prevent the spillage of digestive contents into the abdominal cavity during the anastomosis’ critical healing period. It’s not only time-effective and easy to deploy, but it is passed naturally after several weeks, eliminating the need for an additional procedure. Even if an anastomotic perforation occurs, the intraluminal barrier prevents any leakage of fecal matter into the abdominal cavity. Without fecal matter escaping the bowel, the risk of infection and sepsis is greatly diminished. As a result, RemovAL will reduce the significant morbidity and mortality associated with colorectal resections. In addition, hospitals are highly incentivized to adopt RemovAL to reduce the high annual economic burden of $1.2 billion currently associated with anastomotic leak re-interventions.