Cook Medical launches new catheter range in Europe

Cook Medical has announced today that its Spectrum Glide minocycline / rifampin impregnated catheters are now available in Europe.

Produced by Cook’s Critical Care unit, the product range has been designed to combat catheter related bloodstream infections (CRBIs).

The Department of Health reports that the health service saw costs of £6,209 for each patient with CRBIs in 2003.

Cook Medical explains that Spectrum catheters are impregnated with rifampin and minocycline on the external and internal surfaces to provide protection against CRBIs, via broad-spectrum activity against gram positive and gram negative organisms.

Dr Duncan Wyncoll, consultant Intensivist at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital in London, noted that the NHS was making “great strides” to reduce hospital acquired infections through many methods including new technology.

“The Cook Spectrum catheter is one such example of this technology,” he confirmed.

Dr Wyncoll went onto suggest that the “next step” was to hone the techniques used to place catheters in an effective manner as reducing errors in catheter placement would further cut infection rates.

Last month, Cook Medical appointed Phil Nowell as the new global director of its aortic intervention division.