ASX Healthcare Innovators Target Costly Surgical Complications and Repeat Procedures
Surgery is an essential part of modern medicine, but it comes with inherent risks. According to the World Health Organization, complications following inpatient surgery can occur in up to 25% of patients. These complications include surgical site infections, incomplete tumour removal requiring repeat procedures, wound breakdown, and fluid accumulation such as seromas or haematomas. They not only extend recovery times but also increase the likelihood of re-admission or further operations. This results in poorer patient outcomes and a substantial financial burden on healthcare systems.
However, ASX-listed healthcare companies are working to reduce these complications at every stage of the surgical pathway, from planning and precision surgery to healing and recovery. Let’s explore how some of these companies are making a difference.
Reducing the Need for Repeat Surgery in Tumour Removal
A major driver of repeat surgery, particularly in cancer cases, is incomplete tumour removal. Melbourne-based Optiscan (ASX:OIL) is targeting this issue with its miniaturised pen-sized confocal endomicroscopic imaging technology. This technology allows surgeons and pathologists to work together in real time to ensure the entire tumour is removed with clear margins the first time, rather than waiting for lab results and potentially undergoing repeat surgeries.
“Our probe can scan a 3D cavity in real time to obtain imaging at the single cell microscopic level, so the pathologist gets all the information they need to make a decision on the spot,” said managing director and CEO Dr Camile Farah. He added that one third of patients who have breast lumpectomy surgeries as an example need follow-up surgery because the whole tumour had not been removed completely.
Optiscan is advancing clinical studies, including a breast cancer surgery trial at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and a head and neck cancer study at St John of God Murdoch Hospital in Perth. The company is also collaborating with the Mayo Clinic in the US to integrate real-time imaging into robotic surgery platforms.
Aroa Improving Wound Healing to Reduce Complications
Complication rates in complex wounds and soft tissue reconstruction are typically high, often due to poor blood flow and an increased risk of infection. Aroa Biosurgery (ASX:ARX) is tackling the problem with its flagship Myriad family of products, based on its proprietary tech using ovine forestomach tissue. This technology can be used in a wide range of surgical procedures where tissue needs to be rebuilt.
Encouraging results continue to emerge from Aroa’s Myriad Augmented Soft Tissue Reconstruction Registry (MASTRR), the largest ongoing multicentre observational study collecting patient data on bioscaffold use in complex reconstruction. The first peer-reviewed published results from MASTRR in 2024 showed significant efficacy in treating high-risk lower limb reconstruction cases.
Aroa is also targeting one of the more persistent challenges in surgery with its Enivo system, designed to reduce post-operative complications linked to dead space – the gaps left between tissue layers after surgery. Still in development, Enivo combines an ECM sleeve with a wearable vacuum system and is designed to hold tissue layers together while removing excess fluid to reduce dead space for better healing outcomes after surgery.
PolyNovo and Avita Also Look to Improve Wound Healing
Two other Australian-listed wound care companies, PolyNovo (ASX:PNV) and Avita Medical (ASX:AVH), are also working to reduce complications that can follow major surgery, trauma, and burns. PolyNovo’s NovoSorb BTM technology aims to act as a biodegradable scaffold helping regenerate dermal tissue in complex wounds, including burns, trauma, and reconstructive surgery. Meanwhile, Avita Medical’s Recell technology uses a patient’s own skin cells to promote skin regeneration and healing.
Recell traces its origins to pioneering work by legendary Perth burns surgeon Professor Fiona Wood, whose spray-on skin technology drew international attention after being used to help treat victims of the 2002 Bali bombings. The spray-on skin platform is used in burns and reconstructive procedures and aims to reduce the amount of donor skin required in grafting procedures, potentially helping lower complications associated with donor site wounds and lengthy recovery periods.
Recce Fighting Drug-Resistant Superbug Challenge
Recce Pharmaceuticals (ASX:RCE) is tackling the risk of post-operative infections with its next-generation synthetic anti-infectives designed to target drug-resistant bacteria, commonly referred to as superbugs. The WHO describes antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as “one of the top global public health and development threats.” Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) remain a growing global concern, particularly as increasing AMR makes these infections harder to treat and more likely to lead to complications after surgery.
Recce’s lead asset, RECCE 327 (R327), is being developed as a fast-acting, broad-spectrum synthetic anti-infective capable of targeting both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains. R327 has completed early-phase human studies, including a Phase I/II intravenous trial in urinary tract infection and urosepsis, a serious and often life-threatening complication.
Recce has also run multiple clinical programs using its topical R327 gel formulation with a Registrational Phase III trial in diabetic foot infections (DFIs) underway in Indonesia, following a Phase I/II study which met its primary endpoint. CEO James Graham noted that DFIs behave similarly to complex post-operative wound infections with both often persistent, hard-to-treat, and likely to delay healing or require further intervention.
Conclusion
Aroa, PolyNovo, and Avita are all working to improve healing outcomes while potentially reducing risks such as infection, repeat procedures, prolonged hospital stays, recovery times, and severe scarring. Recce is focused on advancing a new class of synthetic anti-infectives designed to address difficult-to-treat infections, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria, across a range of clinical indications.
These ASX healthcare innovators are playing a crucial role in addressing the costly and ongoing challenge of post-surgical complications, ultimately improving patient outcomes and reducing the financial burden on healthcare systems.
