A well being care employee cares for a child on the Kakamega County Common Instructing and Referral Hospital in Kenya (Photograph credit score: Sophie Bochaberi). Credit score: Sophie Bochaberi/Kakamega County Common Instructing and Referral Hospital in Kenya
In low-resource settings, infants born with gastroschisis—a congenital situation during which the growing intestines lengthen exterior the physique via a gap within the belly wall—face life-threatening challenges.
Whereas survival charges in high-income international locations now exceed 90% due to superior medical instruments and neonatal care, infants in resource-constrained medical settings nonetheless face excessive mortality charges, partially due to an absence of entry to the lifesaving tools wanted to deal with the situation.
A group of engineers and pediatric surgeons led by Rice College’s Rice360 Institute for World Well being Applied sciences is working to vary that.
Their innovation? A easy, low-cost and domestically manufacturable medical system, referred to as the “SimpleSilo,” designed to offer lifesaving remedy for gastroschisis at a fraction of the present value and created from domestically accessible supplies.
“We focused on keeping the design as simple and functional as possible, while still being affordable,” stated Vanshika Jhonsa, a latest Rice alumna and first writer of the examine printed within the Journal of Pediatric Surgical procedure.
Jhonsa, who’s now a medical scholar at UTHealth Houston, additionally received the 2023 American Pediatric Surgical Affiliation Innovation Award for the venture. “Our hope is that health care providers around the world can adapt the SimpleSilo to their local supplies and specific needs.”
In customary remedy, preformed silo luggage are used to guard the uncovered intestines and gently return them into the belly cavity steadily. These gadgets are efficient however costly: a single-use bag can value between $200 and $300, a worth properly past the attain of many hospitals around the globe.
Alternate options exist, however they sometimes require surgical stitching, which creates holes in a child’s stomach and the bag materials that may improve the danger of an infection. Moreover, these options lack the structural integrity wanted to soundly help the intestines.
The SimpleSilo modifications that. Constructed from a saline bag, oxygen tubing and a commercially accessible warmth sealer, the system mimics the perform of business spring-loaded silo luggage with out the excessive value.
“Our goal was to replicate the functionality of commercial silo bags using inexpensive, easy-to-source materials,” stated Bindi Naik-Mathuria, pediatric surgeon at UTMB Well being and corresponding writer of the examine.
“The result is a bag that costs less than $2.05 to make and can be assembled by hospital staff in under an hour. Working with surgeons in sub-Saharan Africa where expensive commercial silo bags are unavailable, I’m excited to offer this solution as I know that it will be saving lives of babies born with gastroschisis.”
To judge the SimpleSilo, the group subjected it to a rigorous sequence of laboratory checks. The system demonstrated a fluid leakage charge of simply 0.02 milliliters per hour, which is akin to business silo luggage, and it withstood repeated disinfection with out compromising its efficiency.
“The students’ big innovation was to focus on materials already available in low-resource hospitals and to use accessible manufacturing methods—in this case, cutting materials with scissors and using a food-grade heat sealer to reassemble them,” stated Meaghan Bond, lecturer and senior design engineer at Rice360.
“The early laboratory testing reported in the paper suggests these easy-to-make bags will stand up to disinfection methods and actual use.”
In a simulated in vitro take a look at utilizing cow intestines and a mock belly wall, the SimpleSilo achieved a 50% discount of the intestines into the simulated cavity over three days, once more matching the efficiency of its high-cost counterparts.
What units the SimpleSilo aside is its ease of manufacturing and usefulness in real-world hospital settings. Pediatric surgeons in Kenya efficiently assembled and used the bag in scientific care, reporting constructive outcomes and expressing confidence in persevering with its use.
“Gastroschisis has one of the biggest survival gaps from high-resource settings to low-resource settings, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” Bond stated.
“We believe the SimpleSilo can help close the survival gap by making treatment accessible and affordable, even in resource-limited settings.”
Plans are underway for a proper scientific trial in East Africa. Ought to the outcomes proceed to be constructive, the group hopes to make open-source directions broadly accessible, enabling extra hospitals to supply their very own SimpleSilo gadgets.
“This project is proof that thoughtful engineering and global collaboration can save lives,” Bond stated, noting that it was led by undergraduate college students in a worldwide well being applied sciences class.
“We don’t have many class projects that make it to a peer-reviewed publication, and I’m so proud of the extra work these students put in to get there. Sometimes, the most powerful solutions are the simplest ones.”
Extra authors on the examine embrace Shreya Jindal and Shriya Shah, each undergraduates on the time of the examine, and Mary Seifu Tirfie, a present Rice360 World Well being Fellow.
Extra data:
Vanshika Jhonsa et al, The SimpleSilo: An Efficient and Reasonably priced Resolution for Gastroschisis Administration in Low-resource Settings, Journal of Pediatric Surgical procedure (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2025.162369
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Easy resolution to save lots of lives globally: Low-cost ‘SimpleSilo’ presents hope for infants with gastroschisis (2025, July 31)
retrieved 31 July 2025
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