Geko - Plaque prevents thrombosis

To help patients reduce the risk of post-operative DVT, scientists from Sky Medical Technologies, St Bartholomew's Hospital and Queen Mary University (UK) Developed a high tech sticker called Geko, which is attached to the back of the knee.

Usually, when we walk, pressure on the legs plus the stretching of the leg muscles, will help push the blood from the legs to the heart. But patients after surgery are very susceptible to DVT because they are usually in one place and have little foot movement. These blood clots may break and become trapped in the small blood vessels in the lungs, causing death from pulmonary embolism. Geko works to prevent this.

The Geko sticker consists of a medical band attached to a circular head containing a battery pack and device on / off button. The battery is connected to two electrodes attached along the length of the patch. When used, the doctor removes the outer protective film to reveal a sticky gel that helps fix the patch on the patient's skin and leads the electrical impulses from the device to the skin to the spinal nerves. When the Geko is turned on, the nerves in the legs send signals to the muscles in the legs, stimulating them to squeeze a few seconds. As a result, these muscles pressurize the blood vessels and pump blood back to the heart instead of staying in place in the lower calf.

A trial of over 30 healthy patients at Bartholomew Hospital showed that the use of the Geko patch increased the rate at which the blood from the legs was returned to the heart, which in turn prevented thrombosis.