Synapse Biomedical https://www.synapsebiomedical.com/covid-19, working with University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH) https://uhospitals.org and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) https://case.edu has received FDA approval for emergency use of their “TransAeris Diaphragmatic Pacing (DP) Stimulator System”.
The system will be used to help wean patients including COVID-19 patients off ventilators. The DP functions works by having temporary small electrodes implanted by minimally invasive surgery to stimulate the diaphragm.
DP was initially developed for patients with spinal cord injuries, but has proven to be effective in keeping patients off ventilators in intensive care units especially for cardiac patients. As for spinal cord injured patients, the time on ventilators has decreased from 30 to 10 days, and patients with pneumonia have significantly decreased their ventilator days when DP is used.
Raymond Onders, Chief of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery, and Chair in Surgical Innovation at UH, believes the technology could significantly reduce the amount of time COVID-19 patients spend on ventilators by perhaps 26% which would allow more ventilator units to be used for other patients.