Verathon expanded its BladderScan bladder volume instrument product line with a new Small Child Mode for the BVI 9400 bladder volume instrument, which was debuted at the 2008 Association of peri-Operative Registered Nurses (AORN) conference in Anaheim, CA this week.
Small Child Mode reportedly enables healthcare providers to measure bladder volume noninvasively on children weighing less than 60 pounds and standing less than 48 inches high with the same instrument used for adult patients. The enhanced BladderScan BVI 9400 has a color console, improved aiming, on-board video tutorials and an array of exam recording options.
Urinary catheter-related UTIs are estimated to total over 561,000 per year and account for more than 40 percent of all nosocomial infections. According to a recent national study in the American Journal of Medicine, UTIs are the most common hospital-acquired infection and cost the healthcare system between $424 million to $451 million annually.
BladderScan instruments, which help monitor post-operative urinary retention and evaluate common urological conditions, have been proven to reduce the rate of nosocomial UTIs by preventing unnecessary catheterizations.
The BladderScan portable ultrasound instrument, is noninvasive, easy to use and employs patent-pending NeuralHarmonics technology. The company says NeuralHarmonics technology improves both speed and accuracy in bladder volume measurement, and helps achieve previously unattainable differentiation of the bladder, urine and hypo-echogenic regions, such as the uterus, thereby reducing error and minimizing uncertainty in measurements of bladder function.
April 2008