Study Reveals 100% Accuracy of NG Tube Placement Using Novel Technology
SAN FRANCISCO (PRWEB) July 06, 2023 -- A ground breaking study validated a significant advancement for accurate placement of nasogastric feeding tubes (FTs). Entarik is an impedance-based platform, designed by Gravitas Medical and cleared by the FDA, that utilizes bio-impedance technology and embedded safety-checks to assist clinicians in safe placement and continuous monitoring of enteral feeding tubes. The study, published in The International Journal of Applied and Basic Nutritional Sciences, was conducted on healthy subjects with and without acid suppression medication. The results demonstrate the Entarik platform's ability to revolutionize and enhance patient care.
Subjects participating in the study underwent successive placements of 8 French (Fr), 10Fr, and 12Fr FTs. The Entarik algorithm, integrating impedance and other physiological parameters, determined the final insertion depth of each tube. The study procedures were then repeated after the subjects received proton pump inhibitor (PPI) medication for three days. In all insertions (60/60 = 100%), the algorithm-predicted intragastric location was confirmed through post-placement abdominal x-ray, which serves as the gold standard for placement confirmation. Additionally, the study evaluated the use of gastric aspirate pH as a means of confirming tube location. Subjects taking acid suppression medication demonstrated elevated gastric aspirate pH and gastric aspirate could only be obtained in 30% of insertions. As a result, the pH method was deemed unreliable for placement confirmation.
“The findings of this study highlight the limitations of traditional methods and underscore the need for innovative solutions like Entarik”, said Saheel Sutaria, CTO of Gravitas Medical. Clinicians in the US place over 8 million nasogastric feeding tubes each year. The current standard-of-care used in hospitals is to insert a feeding tube unaided and confirm placement with an x-ray at completion, making it challenging for the clinician and risky for the patient. “Our goal is to ensure that injury, complication, and death from NG tube misplacement never happen,” continued Sutaria. “This study shows that the technology and process we’ve embedded in Entarik delivers significant progress toward those objectives.”
The demand for enteral nutrition is rapidly increasing. An aging population, increased head and neck cancer surgeries, strokes, and other motility inhibiting diseases are elevating demand for enteral nutrition therapy. The Entarik Feeding Tube System is intended for the administration of nutrition, fluids, and medications by the nasoenteric route for patients who have an intact gastrointestinal tract but are physically unable to manage nutritional intake through normal mastication and deglutition. Learn More.
About Gravitas Medical
At Gravitas Medical, we focus on transforming enteral feeding into enteral nutrition intelligence. The gut provides information and we use our passion for technology to find new ways to gather that information and provide it to caregivers so that they can make better decisions, improve outcomes for their patients, reduce the amount of time a patient stays in the hospital, and reduce the overall cost of care. We take the guesswork out of enteral nutrition.
Gravitas Medical is a Silicon Valley-based medical device company that emerged out of Theranova, a medtech incubator focused on tackling the biggest challenges in healthcare.
Jim Gabalski, Gravitas Medical, http://Gravitas Medical, 1 5853505468, [email protected]
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