BILLERICA, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Access Vascular, Inc. (AVI), a medical device company addressing the most common and costly complications of intravenous therapy, today announced the publication of a peer-reviewed study of its HydroPICC® peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) in the journal Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine. The retrospective study demonstrated that HydroPICC significantly reduced clot formation and failures, compared with conventional polyurethane PICCs.

Of the estimated 2.7 million PICCs placed in U.S. patients each year, roughly 95 percent are made from polyurethane, with occlusion rates ranging from 7.4 to 35 percent – meaning that there are hundreds of thousands of polyurethane-related PICC occlusions each year in the U.S. alone.

This retrospective study investigated whether the HydroPICC, constructed of a novel hydrophilic biomaterial with MIMIX™ technology, reduced thrombotic catheter occlusions, compared to polyurethane devices, in 121 patients who received a PICC as part of their medical care.

The study results demonstrated no occlusions or replacements in the 60 HydroPICC insertions, while 13 catheter occlusions were reported in the 61 polyurethane insertions catheter group and eight outright PICC replacements (13%).

“Reducing clot formation in PICCs helps to reduce delays in treatment, unscheduled catheter replacements, the risk of infection, and overall total cost of medical care,” said James Biggins, co-founder and CEO of Access Vascular, Inc. “If we conservatively project out the cost savings on just replacement devices seen in this study, there could easily be an annual savings of $80 million in the U.S. – and, most importantly, greatly improve the standard of care for patients.”

AVI’s platform of biomaterial-based vascular access devices, featuring MIMIX™ technology that mirrors the body’s chemistry, is designed to help reduce the most common and costly complications associated with vascular access procedures: infection, thrombosis, and phlebitis. Recently published clinical data for the HydroMID midline catheter showed six-fold failure reduction compared with a standard polyurethane device.

“This study validates the dramatic reduction in complications I’ve seen since switching to Access Vascular’s devices, and I’m excited to share these results with the greater clinical community,” said Joseph Bunch, RN, lead author of the study. “Innovations, such as AVI’s clot-resistant technology, which help patients and clinicians alike by improving the standard of care, should be widely adopted by healthcare practitioners.”

About Access Vascular

Access Vascular was founded to address the most common and costly complications of intravenous therapy: infection, thrombosis, and phlebitis. Taking a foundationally different approach to thrombus reduction, the company manufactures intravenous catheters from a hydrophilic material which retains significant amounts of water. Engineered to mimic the body’s natural chemistry, Access Vascular catheters are designed to evade the foreign body response and complications that come with it. Our award-winning, FDA-cleared products are HydroPICC® and HydroMID®. For more information, please visit www.accessvascularinc.com.

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