LuboCollar Promises an Open Airway

According to Israel’s Globes, “Hadassah Hospitals technology transfer company Hadasit and Tel Aviv University technology transfer company Ramot announced… that their jointly developed Lubo Cervical Collar, designed for use in trauma situations, had demonstrated positive results in a two-part Phase I safety study.”
The device, it turns out, has a simple but very important idea: it is designed to keep the airway open in people by immobilizing the neck, and by giving patients what anesthesiologists call a “jaw thrust.” Medgadget obtained a photo of the device.
From the press release:

“LuboCollar is designed to protect the neck by restricting the movement of the head relative to the rest of the body and to maintain an open airway in a non-invasive, simple and quick to operate way. It does so by using a “jaw-thrust”-like knob to maneuver the mandibles, pushing them forward in the direction of the chin,” explains Dr. Omri Lubovsky, developer of the LuboCollar and a physician in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Hadassah University Hospital.
The study included twenty people divided into two groups. The first group included healthy volunteers, seven men and three women between the ages of 28-36, who lied awake on a bed for 30 minutes with the collar attached to the neck. For the first 10 minutes the subjects remained still. The jaw thrust knob of the LuboCollar was then moved forward one centimeter and the patient remained in that state for the next 20 minutes. No adverse side effects (pressure sores, local irritation or damage) were reported.
The second group consisted of nine men and one woman between 20 and 52 years of age all with orthopedic surgeries already planned. The aim of this part of the trial was to study the LuboCollar on unconscious patients. Each patient wore the collar while under general anesthesia with a laryngeal mask or an endotracheal tube. The device engaged for five minutes without using the “jaw thrust knob”. The device then pulled the jaw forward one centimeter. The patient remained in that state for the following 20 minutes. No adverse side effects were reported.
The evaluations in both the first and second part of the study were conducted immediately after the collar was removed, again two hours later and for a final review 24 hours post.

Press release: Hadasit’s and Ramot’s LuboCollar for Trauma Patients Demonstrates Positive Results in Safety Study …
Globes: Hadasit cervical collar passes Phase I safety trials …