BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A breakthrough in medical technology is unfolding right here in our backyard.
Garwood Medical says it invented a solution for people who experience potentially fatal infections after implant surgery.
Researchers hope BioPrax can address a serious, unmet need for patients. Doctors say it can treat infections without the need to remove the implant.
"We use low levels of voltage-controlled stimulation to eradicate bacteria from the surface of an implant," Doctor Mary Canty, Director of Research at Garwood explained. "The treatment itself works on oxygen and water reduction which effectively increases the Ph so it becomes more basic so think about like lemons and limes...the complete opposite of that, so in that basic environment the bacteria can no longer live."
According to researchers, more than 40,000 people who get a knee or hip implant each year develop an infection and one in five people with a knee-implant infection do not survive.
Doctors say once an infection is identified they have to cut the person back open, remove the implant, and put in a cement spacer. The hope is to then put in a new implant, but the reinfection rate is 35 percent.
That's why doctors say BioPrax is so important and now with a large investment the approval process could happen fast. The FDA designated it a breakthrough device because it addresses a serious unmet clinical need.
The President and CEO of Garwood Medical says BioPrax is a minimally invasive therapy to treat the infection, with the goal of having the patient keep the original implant.
The device was developed by the University of Buffalo in collaboration with Syracuse University and now has the support of an $8 billion Japanese company called Teijin.
Doctors say right now BioPrax is in the animal testing phase and later this year they hope to start with human trials.
Once approved it could create more jobs in Buffalo and there could be a large production facility.
