• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Medical Tubing and Extrusion

Medical tubing and extrusion technologies

  • Technologies
    • Balloons
    • Brain-computer interfaces
    • Cardiac Implants
    • Catheters
    • Endoscopes
    • Heart valves
    • Pulsed Field Ablation
  • Components
    • Connectors
    • Needles and Injections
    • Seals
    • Tubing Components
  • Manufacturing
    • Coatings
    • Extrusions
    • Machining
    • Molding
      • Injection Molding
      • Insert molding
      • Mold Components
    • Tools
  • Materials
    • Advanced Materials
    • Metals
    • Nitinol
    • Plastics
    • Silicone
  • Business
    • Distribution Agreements
    • Legal News
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Partnerships
    • Personnel Moves
  • Regulatory
    • 510(k)
    • CE Mark
    • FDA Breakthrough Designation
    • ISO Certification
    • Pre-Market Approval (PMA)
    • Recalls
  • Suppliers
  • About Us

How this inside-out vascular access system simplifies catheter placement

October 5, 2022 By Danielle Kirsh

Surfacer-Inside-Out-Bluegrass-Vascular
The Surfacer Inside Out vascular access system [Image courtesy of Bluegrass Vascular Technologies]

Bluegrass Vascular Technologies is making catheter placement procedures for dialysis and chemotherapy easier and safer using inside-out technology, explains CEO and President Gabi Niederauer.

Bluegrass Vascular Technologies has figured out a way to make a catheter sheath go inside the body and back out for easy catheter placement in standard access procedures.

The San Antonio, Texas–based company’s Surfacer Inside-Out access system facilitates catheter insertion into the central venous system. The company designed it for use in patients with upper body venous occlusions or other conditions that preclude central venous access by conventional methods.

One of the challenges of having a catheter in the body for weeks or months for dialysis or chemotherapy is the risk of blood clots. Thrombosis forms 50% of the time when health providers insert catheters into people for an extended period of time. When thrombosis occurs in a long-term catheter, it can turn into a chronic occlusion — which happens in an estimated 16% of long-term catheters, according to Gabi Niederauer, president and CEO of Bluegrass Vascular Technologies.

Catheter placement can also become difficult if the right internal jugular becomes chronically occluded. When this happens, a doctor may try to gain access to the central venous systems through the outside of the body using a sharp needle. However, this can further complicate the procedure and create a dangerous situation as it often requires blind placement of the needle near the heart and lungs.

“Some doctors try to go in the femoral vein and push a sharp guide wire through the occlusion and snare it on the other side. But what’s most commonly done is if they don’t get access on this side, they just go to the other side,” Niederauer told Medical Design & Outsourcing. “What then happens is for patients who are dependent on catheters like a dialysis patient, they just burn up all of that central vasculature. They essentially cause the same thing to happen on the left side.”

Get the full story on our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing.

Filed Under: Catheters Tagged With: Bluegrass Vascular Technologies, Women In Medtech

About Danielle Kirsh

Danielle Kirsh is an award-winning journalist and senior editor for Medical Tubing + Extrusion, Medical Design & Outsourcing and MassDevice. She received her bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and mass communication from Norfolk State University and is pursuing her master's in global strategic communications at the University of Florida. You can connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn, or email her at dkirsh@wtwhmedia.com.

Primary Sidebar

“mte
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest trends and developments in medical tubing and extrusion.
MDO ad

Sponsored Content

A new way to access scientific papers?

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.

Footer

Inv Logo

MASSDEVICE MEDICAL NETWORK

MassDevice
DeviceTalks
Medical Design & Outsourcing
MedTech 100 Index
Drug Discovery & Development
Pharmaceutical Processing World
Medical Design Sourcing
R&D World
Drug Delivery Business News

Medical Tubing + Extrusion

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Attend our Monthly Webinars
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy | RSS