Mobile Platform Monitors Surgical Blood Loss

A novel system designed for the iPad uses sophisticated computer algorithms to calculate intra-operative blood loss and hemoglobin mass by filming surgical sponges.

The Triton Fluid Management System (FMS) features an intuitive iPad interface that requires minimal training and integrates seamlessly into existing surgical workflow. During a surgical procedure, a team member unfurls and points the blood-covered surgical sponges at the iPad, pressing a pedal to take a photo. The images are sent to the cloud, where processing algorithms estimate the amount of blood contained in the sponges and sends a running tally back to the operating room (OR) in real-time.


The Triton FMS can be used during any surgery to calculate estimated blood loss (EBL), an important measure that is crucial in order to know how much blood units it is necessary to prepare for transfusion. This has been notoriously difficult, and doctors have previously relied on weighted bloody sponges, drapes, and laps to guess hemoglobin-hematocrit ratio and other measures. The Triton Fluid Management System is a product of Gauss Surgical (Los Altos, CA, USA), and has received the European Community CE marking of approval.

“While our immediate commercial focus remains in the United States, receiving the CE Mark is an important step towards enabling medical facilities throughout Europe to adopt our solution,” said Milton McColl, MD, CEO of Gauss Surgical. “Blood management is indeed a worldwide healthcare priority, and we are eager to ultimately bring the benefits of real-time blood loss monitoring to bear on a global scale.”

“We identified a critical unmet need for a fast and accurate way to estimate blood loss on sponges in the operating room,” said Siddarth Satish, founder and chief technology officer of Gauss Surgical. “By leveraging the power of mobile devices in combination with our proprietary software we’re fulfilling that need with the potential to reduce unnecessary transfusions and the associated costs and complications.”

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