OmniGuide reports positive results in Beampath pre-clinical trial

July 6, 2009 by MassDevice staff

Cambridge laser scalpel maker says its flexible CO2 laser fiber scalpel produces precise cuts in brain tissue.

OmniGuide Inc. said a pre-clinical trial of its BeamPath flexible CO2 laser fiber scalpel showed the device made precise cuts in pigs' brain tissue with little damage to neighboring tissues.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix (which also funded the study using materials supplied by OmniGuide), compared the BeamPath scalpel with a standard procedure called bipolar electrocautery, according to Yair Schindel, OmniGuide's VP of clinical affairs and business development.

"Bi-polar cautery involves a coagulation device that uses electrical energy to basically dessicate tissue and coagulate blood vessels. It looks like a pair of tweezers you grasp a blood vessel or piece of tissue with and heat it up," Schindel told MassDevice. "The way neurosurgeons cut the brain today is they use bipolar cautery to create an avascular line in the brain and then use scissors or a scalpel to cut in between. But doing that type of procedure on brain tissue ... doesn't make sense."

The BeamPath device combines the cauterization of the bipolar technique with the actual incision, he explained.

"We now finally have a tool that's 'two-in-one,'" Schindel said.

The device has been used in close to 10,000 ear, nose and throat procedures and nearly 1,000 brain and spine operations, he added, noting that the BeamPath NEURO version has been on the market for about six months.

In May, OmniGuide added $1.8 million in equity financing to the $25 million private equity round it drummed up last year.