Field:

Urology, Uro-Gyn., ObGyn

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Description:

Double-J stents revolutionized the minimally invasive management of ureteral occlusions at the cost of significant morbidity and a negative impact on patient’s quality of life. Almost all currently used double-J stents are based to the device developed by Finney in the 1970’s. 25 to 60% of the patients  complain of  DJ related symptoms (frequency, urgency, dysuria, incomplete voiding, flank or/and suprapubic pain and hematuria).

After detailed analysis of these problems, Innoventions re-engineered the bladder end of the Double J design and added an anti-reflux mechanism  to prevent or minimize the DJ related symptoms.

 

Need:

Despite several advances in the material and some design changes, 25 to 60% of the patients  complain of  DJ  related symptoms (frequency, urgency, dysuria, incomplete voiding, flank or/and suprapubic pain and hematuria). These are mainly caused by mechanical irritation of the bladder trigone by the bladder end of the stent and renal pelvis pressure increase  by urine refluxing from the bladder.

 

Despite ongoing research, the ideal ureteral stent has yet to be developed.

 

Advantages:

• The general shape of the new stent is almost similar to current stents

• The learning curve for the physician will be almost nil, because the insertion and retrieval of the new stent will be exactly the same like the current ureteral stents

• The new re-engineered bladder-end and the “anti-reflux valve” will prevent or minimize stent related symptoms

• The “anti-reflux valve” will not disturb passage of the guide wire during stent insertion and will not add volume to the intravesical segment

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R&D status:

Bench tested prototypes

 

IP status:

Stent  and method of use. PCT IL16/050536

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Business opportunity:

Constant technological developments in endoscopic surgery, rise in incidence of urological diseases such as kidney stones and kidney transplants, increase in old population all over the world and also in the developing countries induce the growth of the market.

 The European Union COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) program is creating an European Network of Multidisciplinary Research to Improve Urinary Stents (ENIUS) CA16217 and investing >€100 million. Prof. D. Yachia who already invented 2 generations of stenta  and recently a novel ureteral stent is an invited expert member of the Management Committee of ENIUS  on the subject of urinary tract stents.