Product Review: The neoClose

DR. GREENBERG is Chief, Division of Gynecology, Brigham & Women’s Faulkner Hospital, and Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

The views of the author are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Contemporary OB/GYN. Dr. Greenberg personally tests all the products he reviews. He has no conflicts of interest with this product or the company that produces it.

Image courtesy neoSurgical, Inc.

Background

Fascial trocar wounds are an inevitable consequence of current minimally invasive surgical techniques and postoperative trocar site hernias complicate about 0.5% of laparoscopic surgeries. In an effort to minimize the risk of hernia formation, Dr. James Carter codesigned the Carter-Thomason Needle-Point Suture Passer to facilitate the closure of trocar site defects and first described its use in 1994. Since then, many engineers have tweaked the concept of a device specific to closing trocar fascial wounds with a goal of making the best darn mousetrap. Now, into the foray comes neoSurgical, Inc., with its version of the “mousetrap” called neoClose.

Design and functionality

NeoClose is a disposable, single-use system with 3 basic components: the AnchorGuide, the needle-tipped AutoAnchor driver shaft, and AutoAnchor suture. While the AnchorGuide is a modification of a basic molded PVC device and the AutoAnchor driver shaft is a fairly commonplace needle on a stick, neoClose’s secret is the AutoAnchor suture that combines a strand of absorbable 0 PGA (polyglycolic acid) suture fixed to an absorbable 2.5 mm x 7.5 mm PLGA (polylactic-co-glycolic acid) anchor. This anchor-based system allows the suture to be placed without an assistant and further promotes a fascia closure that may be more physiologic with less tissue bunching and necrosis.

In the OR-in my two left hands-neoClose was slick. It is so intuitive and easy to use that it really makes it difficult to justify not closing fascial defects. The one trivial snafu involved a patient with a deep, narrow umbilicus but this was easily overcome by pulling back the skin edge with an Adson forceps.

Innovation

While the whole fascia-closure-device world was redesigning their suture guiding components, the clever folks at neoSurgical, Inc. went in a different direction and changed the suture itself by adding an anchor. This new direction represents nothing short of a complete paradigm shift and the device’s ease of use owes itself completely to this simple but very effective innovation. Game changer alert!

Summary 

Close to 20 years after the first trocar site closure device was commercially introduced, there is now a wide variety of options in this space, but there is nothing like neoClose. For surgeons who use fascial closure devices, neoClose occupies a place of its own at the head of the class.