By Sue Vorenberg
Tribune Reporter
For doctors, using a normal syringe in some surgical procedures can be an exercise in finger contortion.
Pushing liquids into the body is not the problem - it's using the syringe to withdraw a sample that causes nightmares, said Wilmer Sibbitt, a University of New Mexico Hospital doctor of internal medicine.
In procedures such as biopsies and spinal taps, where a doctor uses one hand to feel the body or adjust instruments, he must use his other hand alone to pull the syringe's plunger out - typically by pushing against suction of the patient's body with just his thumb.
If the pressure of the awkward motion makes his hand shake or jerk, the patient is the one to suffer - with extended hospital stays or additional pain, said Sibbitt, who thinks he has solved the problem by creating a new type of syringe.
"The problem with using one hand is the syringe becomes unstable," Sibbitt said. "Sometimes pulling the needle out that way causes it to actually push in more. That can puncture a lung, or the heart. Even shaking it causes bruising that will make it take longer for a patient to heal."
To demonstrate, Sibbitt puts a red plastic marker about a quarter-inch up the tip of a syringe needle and pushes it into a piece of foam with one hand. His goal is to keep the marker in the same spot as he withdraws the syringe's plunger.
But as he grips the syringe casing and pushes up awkwardly with his thumb, the needle plunges a quarter of an inch further into the foam, then shoots off sideways, cutting a small gash.
A surprised, concerned look crosses his face.
"That's, unfortunately, what I'm talking about," he said.
To fight the problem in his own practice, Sibbitt started tinkering with conventional syringes to come up with something new - a two-buttoned syringe that uses a pulley system to lift the needle out of the patient as the doctor pushes down on a second button, rather than trying to lift a single one with his thumb.
"Hands, their strength is grasping things," Sibbitt said. "The weak part is extension of the fingers and stretching. The reason this new syringe works is it uses the strengths of the hand by letting the thumb clench the button."
Sibbitt had 22 doctors try his test on the foam pad with both a conventional syringe and the new type he invented. All of them performed significantly better with the two-buttoned syringe - called the reciprocating syringe, he said.
"On a zero-to-10 scale the physicians rated the conventional syringe as a 2 and the new syringe as a 9," Sibbitt said. "They just didn't know something like this could be made."
Hilda Draeger, a doctor of internal medicine at UNM Hospital, has tried Sibbitt's syringe test and says she was surprised at the innovative idea. She thinks the new syringe will benefit both patients and doctors, she said.
"It's much easier to use and very simple," Draeger said. "It could decrease accidental needle sticks. It's more steady and more accurate. I think it will be beneficial for several procedures."
Sibbitt hasn't yet tried his syringe on a patient, because he is waiting for approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
He has formed a company called Avanca Medical Devices - with UNM as a partner - and patented the invention. A commercial version of the product should be out by March 1, he said.
"A conservative estimate is that 15 million procedures are done in the United States each year that could benefit from a syringe like this," he said. "To capture 30 percent of that market would be over $100 million."
UNM will get royalties on all sales, Sibbitt added.
The syringe costs about four times as much as a conventional one, so it wouldn't necessarily replace them in normal procedures such as blood draws. But as sales increase the price will likely come down, making them cost-effective for a larger number of procedures, Sibbitt said.
"It's hard to predict, but from our models we think unnecessary injuries will be reduced by 85 percent with this," Sibbitt said. "That will save hospitals and patients money. A punctured lung, for example, can add an extra week to a hospital stay and costs about $10,000."
Sibbitt, who grew up in Los Alamos, said even if the company grows large from sales, he still plans to keep it in New Mexico.
"The company is being developed here and is going to stay here," he said. "New Mexico is home."
Avanca is hiring a sales force right now, which will bring its staff up to 10 people this fall, Sibbitt said.
"Eventually we think we'll go to about 60 people - and those will be higher-paying, good jobs for the state," he said.
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