Efficacy of new filter suction to decrease the rate of occlusion and total suction time in a simulated total hip replacement operation

Background During orthopedic operations, such as total hip replacement or total knee replacement, there is a lot of bone debris from bone cutting and reaming that commonly causes surgical suction devices to occlude many times, which can prolong the operative time and increase the amount of bleeding for the patient. Materials and methods We developed a surgical filter suction system that we call the VY suction tube. The suction tube assembly consists of a tube filter within a housing assembly. The filter pore size was designed to prevent tissue or bone debris from passing through the filter, though it allows fluid to pass through. A simulated total hip replacement operation was performed to test the efficacy of this new suction device when compared with two other types of tube suction devices. Results The VY suction tube showed that the mean duration to remove all fluid from a simulated field was significantly shorter than the Pool suction tube (P=0.0009) and Frazier suction tube (P=0.0012). The study also showed that the VY suction tube has a lower rate of occlusion when compared with the Pool suction tube (P≤0.0001) and Frazier suction tube (P≤0.0001). Conclusion Our new suction tube design shows good efficacy when removing fluid and debris from a simulated operative field. However, further studies in real clinical settings are needed.