By Irene Gaitirira
Published December 14, 2020
A new surgical autotransfusion device is set to revolutionise access to blood across Kenya and Africa.
The blood-transfusion device known as Hemafuse that has the ability to save lives in incidences like ruptured ectopic pregnancies, ruptured spleens and even in planned surgery operations, has been introduced Kenya’s heathcare facilities like Lodwar County Referral Hospital, Kakuma Mission Hospital, Mandera County Referral Hospital, Marsabit County Referral Hospital, and Garissa County Referral Hospital in Kenya’s northern frontier districts.
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Sisu Global, a Baltimore, Maryland (United State of America)-based health corporation whose flagship medical device Hemafuse is, say the device is used in salvaging and retransfusing a patient’s own blood in cases of internal bleeding. Autotransfusion, Sisu Global says, ‘reduces a patient’s recovery time and risk of infection and removes the potential for rejection when compared to donor blood.
“Notably, autotransfusion is viable for cases of ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Other viable cases include blunt trauma, traffic accidents, and cardiac and orthopedic surgeries,” Sisu Global says in a statement.
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Hemafuse is said to possess the ability to perform autotransfusions even in the most challenging environments as it is a manual device that does not require any electricity. The device, SisuGlobal says, “can be used both in emergencies and scheduled procedures to recover blood from where it pools inside of a patient into a blood bag, where it is immediately available to be re-transfused back to that same patient.”
Compared to autotransfusion, the use of donor blood comes with a higher risk of disease transfer, increased length of stay, readmissions, and other complications.
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The introduction of Hemafuse to five hospitals in frontier districts of Kenya that are faced with humanitarian challenges and high incidences of emergency surgeries has been made possible through Sisu Global’s partnership with AMREF Health Africa.
Hemafuse, Sisu Global say, has already been successfully used twice in the Lodwar County Referral Hospital in northern Kenya’s Turkana County . This is the only functional public hospital in the that also serves patients from neighbouring Uganda and South Sudan.
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In two recent cases, a Hemafuse device donated to Lodwar County Referral Hospital by the Amref Safe Motherhood project saved the life of a patient suffering from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and another patient with a ruptured spleen from a road traffic accident; there was no available donor blood for either operation. A theatre nurse who used Hemafuse in the case of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy in Lodwar reported that, “Donor blood is a big challenge in Lodwar particularly due to cultural beliefs and the long distance/bad terrain which makes the blood donation a difficult exercise.” With the Hemafuse device, doctors were able to salvage four units of blood and retransfuse them immediately, saving both patient’s lives. The theatre nurse also said of the device, “It [Hemafuse] has been a great benefit…. so far it has saved lives and provides satisfaction too. As a health worker you go home knowing you have touched a life.”
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The surgeon who used the Hemafuse to operate on the patient with a ruptured spleen reported that the Hemafuse device is especially helpful in trauma cases that are a matter of life and death. “We shall be able to efficiently harvest the blood and provide it for the patient in the same setting. Issues of blood transfusion reactions will be no more if we use patients’ own blood to autotransfuse and provide volume deficits.”
Sisu Global say Hemafuse is also being used in hospitals throughout Ghana where the corporation ‘has completed a successful pilot of Hemafuse in three of the largest 10 hospitals: Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, and Tema General Hospital.