Sep. 30, 2009 (Business Wire) -- Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (NYSE: KCI) will highlight the latest addition to the KCI Negative Pressure Technology Platform (NPTP), the ABThera™ Open Abdomen Negative Pressure Therapy System (the ABThera OA NPT System), during a symposium sponsored by the Company on October 2nd at the 68th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the preeminent annual event for Trauma surgery, in Pittsburgh. The ABThera OA NPT System is an easy-to-use solution designed to assist surgeons in the management and treatment of the open abdomen while helping achieve primary fascial closure.
The symposium will also feature KCI’s new publication on U.S. clinical guidelines for the management of the open abdomen utilizing KCI’s active abdominal management systems. The clinical guidelines, developed by an international expert consensus group of 13 surgeons, provide a novel classification system and recommendations on the practical application of the ABThera OA NPT System.
“This new KCI technology greatly improves the clinical management of patients who require temporary abdominal closure,” said Michael L. Cheatham, M.D., director of the Surgical/Trauma Intensive Care Units at Orlando Regional Medical Center and a member of the consensus group. “A surgeon makes the decision to leave the abdomen open as a result of the complexity of the patient’s critical illness. Innovations such as the consensus group’s classification system and the ABThera OA NPT System represent valuable approaches to improving management of the open abdomen and helping to achieve definitive fascial closure, a situation historically associated with significant morbidity and mortality.”
The symposium, “Latest Perspectives in Management of the Open Abdomen,” will be held Friday, Oct. 2, 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. in the Sterlings Room at the Hilton Pittsburgh. Experts in surgical intensive, trauma and critical care will discuss the substantial challenges in managing open abdomen patients.
Dr. Cheatham will moderate the symposium. Additional faculty participants include:
- Mark Kaplan, M.D., chairman, Division of Trauma and Critical Care, and associate chairman, Department of Surgery at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia
- Gary Nieman, B.S., associate professor, senior research scientist, and director, Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care Laboratory at State University of New York-Upstate Medical University Department of Surgery, Syracuse
The symposium will cover contemporary concepts in the pathophysiology of intra-abdominal hypertension and the need for effective management solutions. Current investigative data, as well as the KCI clinical guidelines for management of these complex patients using the ABThera OA NPT System, will be presented.
