Trice Medical Gets FDA 510(K) Clearance For Mi-eye 2 Disposable Needle

(RTTNews) - Trice Medical, whose investors include Safeguard Scientifics (SFE), announced Thursday that it received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for mi-eye 2, a disposable needle with a fully integrated camera that enables physicians to use advanced diagnostic imaging to visualize joint injuries in their clinic.

The mi-eye 2 is designed for use in diagnostic and operative arthroscopic and endoscopic procedures to provide illumination and visualization of an interior cavity of the body through either a natural or surgical opening. The mi-eye 2 also provides physicians the ability to inject or aspirate under direct visualization.

It is estimated that currently there are approximately 28,000 orthopedic surgeons seeing 20 million office visits annually for knee-related problems. There are 12 million visits also annually related to shoulder pain.

Trice Medical noted that MRI's are often inconclusive, or result in false readings, which has the potential to lengthen the timeline from diagnosis to recovery. In addition, not every patient is a candidate for MRI.

According to the company, the mi-eye 2 provides a diagnostic modality for every patient, and can provide time-savings to the patient by eliminating the multiple visits associated with an MRI.

Trice Medical's other investors include BioStar Ventures and HealthQuest Capital.