USPTO issues new patent to Excelsior Medical's SwabKIT

Excelsior Medical Corporation announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued new US Patent No. 8,167,847 to the company. The patent relates to an antiseptic cap and antiseptic cap equipped plunger and syringe barrel assembly.

Excelsior Medical's integrated delivery system called SwabFlush™ combines the company's evidence-based disinfection cap, SwabCap®, with a saline flush syringe. The benefits of SwabCap have been established in recent studies such as a prospective, peer-reviewed clinical trial at the four-hospital NorthShore University Health System (Evanston, Ill.) and a multi-site study of SwabCap use at 12 hospitals by Gregory Schears, M.D. of Rochester, Minn.

Several studies have shown the combined disinfection cap and flush syringe improve compliance with disinfection and patient safety protocols. For example, Doctors Hospital of Laredo (Laredo, Tex.) adopted an Excelsior product called SwabKIT™ that combines SwabCap with a flush syringe, although in this case as separate devices in a single package. A 72.5% reduction in central line associated bloodstream infections was observed over a one-year span after SwabKIT was adopted.

The combination of disinfection cap and flush syringe make the cap available when the final flush of a line access is performed. That combination improves disinfection through greater cap compliance.