MIT Student Develops $3 Wound-Healing Gadget

(March 29) -- Drawing inspiration from the bathroom aisle in Kmart, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student has created a simple, inexpensive pump that could transform medical care, from disaster-relief efforts to day-to-day operations in American hospitals.

Danielle Zurovcik, 28, created the pump, which uses negative pressure to pull bacteria and fluid out of wounds, for her master's degree thesis project.

"I was walking through Kmart and saw a row of plungers," she told AOL News. "I just thought, 'Wow, that's exactly what I can use.' "

One month later, Zurovcik had designed and built a device that uses nothing more than a bellows pump (often seen on toilet plungers), plastic tubing and a fitting to enclose a wound.

The tool is essentially a pared-down version of a commercial negative-pressure pump, which is already commonplace in American hospitals to treat bed sores or hasten burn treatment.

But the commercial pumps aren't practical for disaster relief: They cost more than $100, weigh anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds and require an energy source to provide nearly 14 watts of power.

All in, Zurovcik's pump costs about $3, weighs less than a pound and operates on human power. Users press the hand pump, which is designed to operate like a spring. That's all it takes to initiate negative pressure, which then pulls impurities out of the wound and sends blood to the damaged area.

Initially, Zurovcik had planned to try out the devices in Rwanda, with a clinical trial at a hospital. Instead, she found herself en route to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, alongside a team of medical specialists from Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

As acute medical traumas ebbed off, those that lingered often required bandages, stitches and ongoing wound care to prevent infection. A bandaged wound, for example, might need changed dressings every few hours to avoid infection.

"There was no way they had the staff or equipment for that," Zurovcik said of her experience in the improvised medical tents around Port-au-Prince.

Zurovcik's device offers an inexpensive, effective way to ease the burden on medical staff, cut costs and promote quicker healing.

"To basically take a toilet plunger and produce negative pressure over a prolonged period of time, that is really great," Kristian Olson, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, told MIT's Technology Review. "Not only do I see it answering this need in developing countries, I think it could really enhance home therapy for chronic wounds in the U.S."

In Haiti, Zurovcik helped treat hundreds of patients in triage tents but only used the device on eight, who suffered everything from amputations to massive flesh wounds. Because the events in Haiti were so unexpected, her team wasn't cleared to do an official, large-scale clinical trial.

But while they couldn't treat everyone with the pump, Zurovcik's team was able to do basic training: Local doctors and family members of injured Haitians were prepped on using the devices.

Zurovcik is back in the United States, but she anticipates that the easy-to-operate pumps will save lives in Haiti, even now that her crew is long gone.

Initial attempts at using the pump in Rwanda have been "a great success," and Zurovcik will travel there this year to conduct an official clinical trial. From there, she hopes to see the pumps -- of which she estimates around 100 have been created so far -- in hospitals overseas and in the U.S.

"In Rwanda and Haiti, they have nothing, and we're giving them something they can use right away," she said. "But in the U.S., this is also a great way for doctors or at-home caretakers to save money."

Not surprisingly, Zurovcik got an A on her master's work. After she perfects the negative-pressure pump, she'll progress to developing cardiovascular medical devices while pursuing a Ph.D.