PERIsign™
Your Emergency Department Fast Track
PERIsign™ brings the accuracy and experience from the hands of the senior surgeon, together with the objectivity provided by X-ray images, to the junior ED physician.
PERIsign – the ED fast track
PERIsign uses very well calibrated sensors to detect involuntary guarding in the abdominal wall. With advanced signal processing and dedicated software, the signal from the abdominal wall is presented for the ED physician. The result is direct, visible, objective, and user independent.
Within minutes, the ED physician can determine if the patient is suffering from peritonitis and requires further attention; such as X-ray investigations, admission, and advanced medical treatment, including surgery. Alternatively, they can ascertain if the patient is safe to go home without undergoing further uncomfortable, time-consuming, costly, and potentially harmful investigations.
Acute abdominal pain and peritonitis
Acute abdominal pain (AAP) accounts for about 10 % of all Emergency Department (ED) visits worldwide. In the US and Europe combined, more than 23 million patients visits the ED due to AAP each year.
A fraction of these patients risk critical illness due to a severe intrabdominal event, such as appendicitis, diverticulitis, perforated ulcer etc. Patients with a seriously intraabdominal event presents with peritonitis. Peritonitis is an inflammation of the peritoneum – the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen. Peritonitis causes a very specific tenderness and involuntary muscle guarding of the abdomen. This involuntary guarding is the only clinical sign of peritonitis and is diagnosed by manual palpation of the patient’s abdomen. The presence of abdominal guarding and thereby peritonitis is the most important sign to differentiate between a potentially critically ill patient and a patient with harmless, non-specific abdominal pain.
Unfortunately, this is a very difficult task and requires experience and confidence from the ED physician. As of today, the ED doctor often need to use time consuming and uncomfortable X-ray examinations and consult senior surgeons to determine if the patient suffers from peritonitis.
PERIsign, an emergency fast track
PERIsign is able to detect if the patient suffers from peritonitis very early in the emergency department workflow, without incurring the time and cost associated with X-ray investigations and consulting senior surgeons. PERIsign is cost effective and is used without any discomfort for the patient.