Cornell Study Shows Maintaining Brain Oxygen Saturation During Cardiac Surgery Shortened ICU and Hospital Stays, Announces Somanetics.

Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers

TROY, Mich.--(BW HealthWire)--May 8, 2001

A 340-patient intervention outcome study from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University demonstrated that maintaining regional brain oxygen saturation at adequate levels during cardiac surgery, as monitored with Somanetics' INVOS(R) Cerebral Oximeter, shortened ICU and hospital stays, announced Somanetics Corporation (Nasdaq:SMTS).

The intervention outcome study results were presented by Fun-Sun Yao, M.D., professor of anesthesia, Cornell University, at the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists' annual meeting in Vancouver.

The cardiac surgery patients were monitored with Somanetics' INVOS Cerebral Oximeter, the only commercially-available patient monitoring system that noninvasively and continuously monitors changes in the regional blood oxygen saturation in the brain. The Cerebral Oximeter provides information by noninvasively transmitting and detecting visible and near-infrared light through SomaSensors(R), single-use sensors that are placed on both sides of a patient's forehead.

Use of the patient monitoring system can help medical professionals monitor changes in regional brain blood oxygen saturation and take corrective action. Such action can potentially prevent or reduce neurological injuries related to surgery and other critical care situations and reduce the associated cost of care.

"When the intervention group patients desaturated, we performed various interventions as needed," explained Dr. Yao. "In sequence, we increased FiO2 to 100 percent, increased PaCO2, increased mean arterial pressure, increased pump flow, increased anesthetic depth, administered nitroglycerin, and transfused packed red cells if hematocrit was less than 20 percent."

The intervention group experienced a lower incidence and duration of brain oxygen desaturation and had significantly shorter ICU and hospital stays than the control group. On average, ICU stays were shortened by one and a half days and hospital length of stay was reduced by about two days.

"Now that we have demonstrated that maintaining adequate oxygen saturation during cardiac surgery significantly shortened ICU and hospital stays, we believe using cerebral oximetry may decrease total costs of cardiac care," said Dr. Yao.

"Previously, we reported that cerebral oxygen desaturation is associated with neurologic complications and prolonged lengths of stay in the intensive care unit and hospital following cardiac surgery. Therefore, it is prudent to monitor and maintain adequate cerebral oxygen saturation during cardiac surgery for the patient's health and to reduce costs associated with cardiac care," he said.

"Management of the brain with information provided by the INVOS Cerebral Oximeter can result in reductions in the cost of care that far exceed the investment in the technology," said Bruce Barrett, Somanetics' president and chief executive officer. "At a cost of approximately $1,000 per day for the ICU, a $100 investment per patient in the INVOS technology provides a substantial return on investment."

The prevalence and persistence of cognitive decline related to coronary-artery bypass graft surgery was recently confirmed by a study conducted at Duke University Medical Center that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine (February 8, 2001) and has received significant media attention. In that study, 42 percent of coronary-artery bypass graft surgery patients exhibited decreased cognitive abilities five years after the procedure. The study concluded that interventions to prevent or reduce long-and short-term cognitive decline are warranted to preserve long-term cognitive function and quality of life after cardiac surgery.

"The Cornell intervention outcome study is important because it demonstrates that by using the INVOS Cerebral Oximeter to monitor brain oxygenation, and making interventions based on the information, the medical team can improve both clinical and cost outcomes," said Barrett.

Somanetics Corporation, headquartered in Troy, Mich., manufactures and markets the INVOS Cerebral Oximeter patient brain oxygen monitoring system, the only noninvasive and continuous monitor of changes in regional oxygen saturation of a patient's blood in the brain commercially available in the U.S. Use of the patient monitoring system can help medical professionals, such as surgeons and anesthesiologists, identify regional blood oxygen imbalances and take corrective action. Such action can potentially prevent or reduce neurological injuries related to adverse events during surgery or in the critical care unit and reduce the associated cost of care.

Somanetics also is developing the CorRestore(TM) patch for use in cardiac repair and reconstruction, including a procedure called Surgical Anterior Ventricular Restoration, or SAVR, a treatment for patients with certain types of congestive heart failure.

Somanetics' web site address is www.somanetics.com.

Note to Editors: In the text above, the "2" in "Fi02" and "PaCO2" should be subscript.