April 20, 2023 – Cardinal Health announced the launch of the first-of-its-kind Stray Away™ hair management drape for more efficient surgical procedure preparation. The Stray Away™ drape is specifically designed and manufactured by Cardinal Health to help minimize hair from obstructing the surgical area and to improve patient preparation time and experience.
Pre-operative preparations for craniofacial and neurosurgical procedures often involve manual and tedious braiding, tying, and, in some cases, invasive shaving or even stapling of a patient’s hair to ensure it is clear of the surgical area. The innovative design of the Stray Away™ drape safely and easily helps keep patient hair removed from the sterile surgical site.
The Stray Away™ drape is a result of a collaboration between Cardinal Health and one of its customers, MedStar Health, which helps its associates transform innovative ideas and discoveries into commercial products and other solutions through the MedStar Institute for Innovation Inventor Services team.
Featuring three unique anchoring points, the Stray Away™ drape secures the patient’s hair away from the surgical area, leveraging linear edge tape, hair Velcro® and stabilizing clips. The anchoring points are designed to maintain a firm grip on the head and hair of the patient for a steady hold throughout surgery and can be removed quickly with less effort than traditional methods after surgery is complete.
The idea for the Stray Away™ hair drape was first disclosed by a past MedStar Health plastic surgery resident and her educational peer as a way to help alleviate challenges with maintaining sterility and control over hair-bearing surgical areas, while wanting to refrain from shaving their patients’ hair before surgery.
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