Spiracur Introduces SNaP BLUE Foam Dressing Kit

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - November 02, 2011) - Spiracur Inc., developer of the SNaP® Wound Care System, an ultraportable and disposable negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) device, today announced that it introduced its SNaP® BLUE Foam Dressing Kit at the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) Fall 2011 in Las Vegas. Unlike conventional black and white foam dressings, Spiracur's foam is a vibrant blue color, making it easier to visualize wound exudate, while minimizing the risk of leaving pieces of foam in the wound upon removal.

"The design of our new SNaP BLUE Foam Dressing Kit takes the benefits of foam and expands upon them to better meet the needs of clinicians," said Gary Restani, president and CEO, Spiracur Inc. "By combining our proven SNaP Wound Care System with the benefits of BLUE, Spiracur may help to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from chronic wounds during their treatment and throughout the healing process."

The SNaP BLUE Foam Dressing Kits are intended for use with the SNaP Wound Care System, offering the proven healing benefits of the ultraportable NPWT device while augmenting the original SNaP Wound Care Dressing. The new foam dressing kit enables the distribution of even levels of negative pressure; the promotion of granulation tissue formation; the enhancement of macro deformation of wound edges, and allows for easy visualization of exudate and excess foam particles.

"Our experience with the SNaP BLUE foam is that it works just as well as the market-leading NPWT foam; with the advantage of making it easier to see the exudate in the dressing," said Dot Weir, RN, CWON, CWS, clinical coordinator, Wound Care, Osceola Regional Medical Center. "We've seen good granulation tissue in our healing wounds as well. The combination of the SNaP System with the new BLUE foam is a wonderful enhancement to this ultraportable NPWT device."

Clinical Case studies and on-going research have reported significant data supporting the efficacy and safety of the SNaP System for the treatment of chronic lower extremity wounds. In addition, the SNaP System is the only non-powered NPWT device approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to treat patients suffering from various wound types including chronic, acute, post-surgical, and flaps and grafts. The inventive design eliminates the electric or battery powered pump typically used to deliver NPWT, and the system is completely silent and lightweight, weighing only 2.2 ounces. As a result, the SNaP System can be worn under clothing, allowing patients to live their normal life without exposing their wound care treatment to the world.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), an estimated 24 million people suffer Diabetes Mellitus. Common complications of diabetes are foot ulcer and Lower Extremity Amputation (LEA), which are very expensive to treat. The actual national cost burden of diabetes is estimated to exceed $174 billion. Beneficiaries with diabetic foot ulcers cost the U.S. healthcare system approximately $33,000 per case, which increases to $52,000 annually when combined with LEA.(1) Spiracur believes that if a diabetic-related chronic wound were to be managed with a product like the SNaP System and LEA were avoided, the cost savings for treatment may be significant.

In addition to showcasing the SNaP System with the new SNaP BLUE Foam Dressing Kit at SAWC, Spiracur's technology was the topic of numerous scientific abstracts, including the comparative effectiveness of mechanically and electrically powered NPWT devices on wound edges; the evaluation of portable and disposable NPWT; the evaluation of an ultraportable mechanically powered NPWT system for the treatment of chronic venous ulcers, and several more. The SNaP BLUE Foam Dressing Kit is commercially available in the United States.

About Spiracur Inc.
Spiracur Inc., headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., is a privately held medical device company focused on the development of innovative wound healing technologies. Spiracur was founded out of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Program in 2007. Its first product, the SNaP Wound Care System, is the result of patient and clinician feedback that current negative pressure wound therapies were too cumbersome. The SNaP Wound Care System was cleared by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2009 in a new therapy category defined as "non-powered" NPWT devices, and the company obtained CE Mark for the device in December 2010. For more information, please visit http://spiracur.com.

Spiracur, Spiracur logo, SNaP, SNaP & Design and Smart Negative Pressure are registered trademarks of Spiracur Inc.

(1) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Advancing Excellence in Health Care, http://www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/index.cfm/search/