SAFIRA Lets Lone Anesthesiologists Administer Regional Blocks

Medovate, a two-year-old UK firm, is bringing its SAFIRA regional anesthesia system to the United States. The SAFIRA (Safer Injection for Regional Anesthesia) allows anesthesiologists to deliver regional anesthesia (block) without relying on an assistant to actually inject it at the right pressure.

Regional anesthesia procedures currently demand one person to operate an ultrasound to guide a needle toward the target, while another is responsible for the actual injection that has to be performed at moderate pressure. Excessive pressure can result in damaged nearby nerves, something that still happens too often in clinical practice.

The SAFIRA system prevents anesthetic agents from being pushed at excessive pressures and therefore makes it possible to perform needle guidance and drug delivery by a single person. This can result in faster procedures as there’s no need for careful coordination between individuals and a single anesthesiologist can speed through regional blocks.

Medovate expects that about $100, and a few minutes of time, can be saved per procedure by relying on one less person. Considering that millions of regional blocks are performed in the U.S. every year, that may end up to an overall saving of about $1 billion.

The SAFIRA system is already FDA approved and Medovate will be showing it off to U.S. anesthesiologists at the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) in San Francisco this coming April.

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