New Solution for Surgical Fluid Waste Disposal

An innovative surgical fluid management and disposal system improves safety and efficiency in the operating room (OR) by employing a direct-to-drain technology.

The Streamway System suctions operative fluid directly from the surgical field, automatically measuring and recording fluid volume before disposing it directly into the healthcare facility’s existing plumbing system. As a result, the system virtually eliminates OR workers' exposure to blood, irrigation fluid, and other potentially infectious fluids found in the surgical environment. The system is installed either in or on the OR wall, keeping it out of the way of staff, yet available when needed. Since the system is connected directly into the facility’s existing plumbing, it can automatically collect and dispose of suctioned fluids throughout a procedure without interruption.


Preprocedure set-up simply involves connecting the suction tubing and procedure filters to the devices suction inlet ports. Postprocedure, cleaning the system entails detaching the suction tubing, removing the procedure filter, connecting the system to a proprietary cleaning solution container, and activating the clean cycle on the touch screen control panel. The Streamway System is a product of BioDrain Medical (Eagan, MN, USA), and has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"We believe our FDA approved product provides a technologically advanced fluid management solution that is superior to the current manual solution, which relies on manual disposal systems and canisters,” said Josh Kornberg, CEO of BioDrain Medical. “We are extremely pleased with these initial installations and look forward to expanding our presence globally in an effort to increase our market share worldwide.”

Manual surgical fluid handling methods involve carrying filled surgical fluid canisters and disposing of them in approved landfills, a process that carries an inherent exposure risk for the workers involved. Approximately 50 million of these potentially disease-infected canisters are disposed of annually in the United States alone, remaining there for years to come as an environmental and healthcare hazard.

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