Primary wound healing in colorectal anastomoses

Implican is developing an innovative patented anastomotic device aiming at a significant improvement of wound healing. The colorectal anastomosis device is based on compression and fixation the bowel wall with the use of two rings. By using this compression, the wound will heal by primary intent, resulting in reduced Anastomotic Leakage (AL).

The technique has been successfully demonstrated in living pigs, with very convincing results of Primary Wound Healing.

Challenge / Need

There are an estimated 1.9 million colorectal cancer diagnosis per year. It is one of the fastest growing diseases in the world.

When people develop rectosigmoid cancer, it can be treated by resection of a segment of the bowel, followed by a colorectal anastomosis. The intersections of the bowel are then connected again by using a circular surgical stapler, using staples to fixate the bowel sections.

Stapled anastomoses heal by secondary intent. This type of wound healing is characterized by inflammation and infiltration of bacteria. It is estimated that up to 20% of the colorectal surgical procedures with circular staplers, have an  Anastomotic Leakage (AL) diagnosed beyond 30 days. This opening in the bowel wall causes inflammations in the pelvis and the abdominal cavity. This leads to severe consequences for the patient, sometimes even to a stoma*.

Implican aims to improve the recovery of colorectal cancer patients after surgery.

Product / Solution

Implican focuses on Primary Wound Healing to obtain a result of outstanding Surgical Quality. 

We designed a novel technique, based on a very strong compression of the bowel with two rings, which ultimately tightly fit both bowel ends together. In the surgical procedure the two intersections of the bowel wall are placed between the rings and brought together. In the compression stage both bowel walls between the top and bottom ring are heavily compressed following a precise compression profile. It is this precise compression that leads to contact between the submucosal layer of the two intersections of the bowel wall. 

Our product ’the Implican Anastomotic Device’ has been successfully demonstrated in a surgical procedure on living pigs.

A stable connection formed by Primary Wound Healing has been shown by histopathological analysis. It confirms the mechanism of the Implican development.

This provides great confidence towards our goal: “Improved recovery of colorectal cancer patients after surgery by reducing the risks for anastomotic leakages”.

Implican will continue the journey by finalizing the product and performing clinical trials to get the product accepted in the market.

We aim to deliver a major positive impact on woundhealing of anastomotic surgery. And thereby contribute to the workload reduction of health care providers around the globe.

The Implican Solution

Medical Professionals

We believe that surgeons still struggle with undesirable outcomes when performing Colorectal Surgery in order to achieve curative resection of the rectum or sigmoid. 

Alternative current Technology

Based on common practice and state of the art technology, surgeons currently choose for circular staplers.

The downside of this technology is the unavoidable risk for inflamations and Anastomotic Leakage. 

Anastomotic Leakage is leading to reduced medical outcomes and is stressful for patient and medical staff.

Implican Technology

The Implican technology aims for a significant reduction of Anastomotic Leakage cases in Colorectal Surgery. By designing our solution as simple as possible, we try to obtain an affordable health care solution which could become widely accessible.

We would be happy to keep you updated on our latest progress. And love hearing your thougths on our technology.

Please click below to receive our white paper.  

Investors

Implican recently closed a seed investment round.  The funding will enable further development of the device and (pre-)clinical testing.

We will reach out to potential investors in 2023 and 2024 for future financing.

For more information: i.kooijman@implican.nl

Our Team

A seriously lean team today.  See our team gradually growing in the following years.

Ivo Kooijman Implican B.V photo 2022

Ivo Kooijman

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Innovation professional with focus on operational performance in medical device production.

20 Years of medical device product development experience in regulated medical device environment. 

Klaas Havenga Implican B.V photo 2022

Klaas Havenga

Chief Medical Officer (CMO)

Head of  the Department of Gastro-Intestinal Surgery of the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG).

Experienced surgeon on colorectal anastomosis procedures.

Carolina Ingelaat Implican 2023

Carolina Ingelaat

QA/RA Manager

Experienced and educated in
MDR and FDA-medical device regulation,
GDP & GMP, ISO13485 QMS
ISO14971 risk management

Projects

Project 1: Implican Anastomotic device

Implican and University Hospital Groningen (UMCG) are collaborating in the development of the surgical device for primary wound healing in intestinal anastomoses. With this development, current stapling techniques can be replaced by a technique with a very low risk of infection. In this project, Implican will develop, validate and test the Alpha prototype product. 

This project receives financial support from the European Union within the program EFRO 2021-2027 Northern Netherlands, SNN Tender Valorization.

Partners

We believe in building idea’s and sharing competences. We currently cooperate with:

Why Choose Us

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Contact

For any comments or questions, please get in contact with 

Implican BV

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