# Proactive Dual-Irrigation Cardiac Chest Tube to Maintain Postoperative Patency

> **NIH NIH R41** · CIRCULATECH LLC · 2024 · $392,119

## Abstract

Abstract
Over 455k cardiac procedures annually rely on chest tubes to drain blood from surgical wounds. However, dated
chest drainage technologies result in significant issues—36% of tubes clog with blood, leading to complications
in 17% of patients due to incomplete drainage. Hospitals spend approximately $9,617 per patient on these
complications, totaling a yearly economic burden surpassing $2B in the US alone. The current practice of milking
and stripping chest tubes is both labor-intensive and potentially risky, often leading to missed clots that
compromise tube patency and patient adverse outcomes.
CirculaTech’s ThoraFlush is a proactive clot preventing chest tube which utilizes proprietary dual irrigation
technology to sustain drainage patency. ThoraFlush integrates seamlessly with hospital IV pumps to irrigate the
chest tube with saline, obviating the labor-intensive manual manipulation, and automating chest tube
maintenance. ThoraFlush saves nurses time and effort in maintaining chest tubes, reduces hospital costs linked
to tube blockages, and promotes faster, smoother patient recovery with fewer complications.
This NIH proposal will complete the following AIMs: 1) Optimize ThoraFlush’s efficacy of drainage patency in a
mediastinum blood coagulation model (MBCM). 2) Sustaining ThoraFlush’s drainage volume in an in vivo model,
superior than the standard of care.
In AIM 1, the team will use an in vitro bench top mediastinum blood coagulation model, known as the MBCM to
produce a functioning ThoraFlush prototype. The MBCM is hypothesized to be more rigorous than clinical
practice due to its use of hypercoagulable porcine blood and mediastinal model geometries/materials promoting
accelerated blood clot formation. Achieving a 6 hour benchmark of retaining device patency will prove
significance to move to conducting AIM 2.
In AIM 2, the team will translate their work in Aim 1 to animal testing using male Yorkshire Breed pigs to assess
ThoraFlush's efficacy in live animals. The study involves a simulated heart surgery, replicating common cardiac
procedures. This approach aims to comprehensively evaluate ThoraFlush's performance in a relevant
physiological context. This model also proves as a first of its kind, mediastinum in vivo model for post-surgical
recovery.
Ultimately, the outcomes of this proposal will develop and prove that ThoraFlush meets patency requirements in
the MBCM and show’s superior performance in an in vivo study, promoting its next stages into commercialization
of the device.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11007859
- **Project number:** 1R41HL176288-01
- **Recipient organization:** CIRCULATECH LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Jake Pistiner
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $392,119
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-23 → 2026-09-22

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11007859

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11007859, Proactive Dual-Irrigation Cardiac Chest Tube to Maintain Postoperative Patency (1R41HL176288-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11007859. Licensed CC0.

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