The DEVICE project’s objective is to develop and certify a medical device for prostate biopsies with the aim of preventing infections after a biopsy.
Project's name is given by the catalan acronym of Dispositiu per a EVitar InfeCcions en biopsiEs.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common among men. It is estimated that one in seven men will develop prostate cancer during his lifetime. In these cases , early detection is crucial to overcome the disease and the prostate biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosis.
Typically, the biopsy needle is inserted through the rectum under ultrasound guidance (TRUS) and a sample is collected from prostate's patient in a painless way.
One of the main problems that this intervention may cause, is a bacterial infection. When piercing the wall of the rectum, faecal bacteria (which are normally confined inside the intestine) can affect other tissues causing a serious infection which requires immediate hospitalization in about 4% of the patients, despite the antibiotic prophylaxis . Assuming an approximate average hospital bed costs of 400€ per day, the estimated cost of post-TRUS infection is 6000€ per patient. Thus, the total annual cost of hospital readmissions due to infective complications of the aformentioned procedure is likely to be 7.2-15.5€ million, depending on country.
Aside this current situation, it's important to note that this expenses can increase in the next years due to the appearance of antibiotic resistant bacteria and the aging of the population, as seen in other pathologies caused by bacteria.
In order to avoid such hospitalizations, the DEVICE technology prouposes a novel approach though the release of small silver particles along the needle's path.
This project has received funding from AGAUR (AGAUR 2014 Prod 00003).
