At least half of women experience urinary incontinence at some point in their lives but few discuss the condition with their physicians. In part, that’s because most women believe few effective treatments exist for urinary leakage – and until recently, they were right. Several advances in 2024, however, offer new hope.

Sequana Medical NV received premarket approval from the U.S. FDA for its Alfapump system to treat recurrent or refractory ascites due to liver cirrhosis. Data from the Poseidon pivotal study showed the implantable device, which removes ascites from the abdomen into the bladder, can eliminate the need for therapeutic paracentesis, improving the quality of life of patients.

Merit Medical Systems Inc. received an early holiday gift this year, reporting that its Wrapsody cell-impermeable endoprosthesis has received premarket approval from the U.S. FDA and plans to begin commercialization of the device there in 2025.

In what represents the first patenting from Glasgow-based Microplate Dx Ltd., three of its co-founders describe a system for diagnosing microbial infections and performing rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing, enabling quicker and more precise determination of effective antibiotics.

Nine out of 10 people with chronic kidney disease have no idea their kidneys are impaired, largely because of a lack of routine testing for albuminuria, one of the earliest biomarker for the disease.

The recent agreement between Devyser Diagnostics AB and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. to collaborate to obtain U.S. FDA approval for a next-generation sequencing (NGS) test for kidney transplant monitoring allows the test to be democratized, Fredrik Alpsten, CEO of Devyser to BioWorld.

Organox Ltd. and Egenesis Inc. signed an agreement to advance a liver support system to facilitate liver recovery in the acute setting.

Quanta Dialysis Technologies Ltd. received the greenlight from the U.S. FDA for the use of its portable dialysis system at home. The clearance brings a much-needed option for patients with end-stage renal disease to receive their treatment in the comfort of their own homes and without a rigid dialysis schedule.

Tokyo-based Olympus Corp. launched a new video imaging platform called Visera S (OTV-S500) in Europe and select Asian countries September 2024 while advancing more rollouts for the product worldwide.

Stimvia s.r.o. recently secured Medical Device Regulation certification for its Uris neuromodulation system to deliver both percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation and peroneal electrical transcutaneous neuromodulation to treat lower urinary tract symptoms.