Recent Trends in Medical Squeeze Bags

Nowadays, medical squeeze bags are probably one of the most underrated devices. Usually, health centers use them during a blood donation procedure to replace rubber bulbs and other similar tools. Many physiotherapists recommend these medical devices as an alternative for carpal expanders, cheap finger exercisers, and even lightweight dumbbells for your wrists. And, of course, one of the most popular forms of medical squeeze bags is widely used for IV infusions.

Let us dig into new trends in squeeze bags, become more familiar with their manufacturing processes, and aspects of their possible use.

Appearance

Over the years, squeeze bags have not had many profound changes to their standard appearance. They are a basic bag with a comfortable grip and a few valves. The first valve is for air or liquid inflation and the second is for keeping the pressure steady and removing any excessive components.

A Few Words about New General Material Trends

Medical squeeze bags are often made of an elastic, soft material with medium stretching properties. In most cases, medical device engineering companies recommend understanding first the primary purpose of your medical squeeze bags, and only after that, to decide what kind of material should be used during a manufacturing process. For example, you understand that producing a medical squeeze bag for arm exercising from a material with low durability is not the best option for your brand.

Traditionally, among the most popular materials for the production of these devices are soft, transparent rubber, PVC (polyvinyl chloride), PE (polyethylene), and PP (polypropylene). To be more specific, rubber is mainly used for bags, used to exercise arms, or during a blood donation procedure. Squeeze bags made of PVC are most often used for various IV infusions.

New Material Trends for IV Bags

Medical squeeze bags have been well known for at least a few dozen years. In the US, IV infusion squeeze bags started replacing glass flacons with solutions in the 1990s. IV bags can be used much more effectively and can increase the overall speed of the infusion procedure very quickly just by gently squeezing the bag.

Still, it is important to know that medical squeeze bags for IV infusions made of polyethylene have mostly been switched to polyvinyl chloride versions because the property of polyethylene is to tear up under high pressure.

New Trends in Bag Usage

Modern engineering helps to improve all available products and lets people find new various ways to use medical devices. Medical squeeze bags are not an exception. At least several new ways to use medical squeeze bags were found during the past few years. Also, as the medical and healthcare sphere keeps expanding, the overall usage of medical squeeze bags increases as well. Let’s look at some of these recent trends.

Anxiety Management Among the citizens of the US, the overall number of people who suffer from anxiety has increased 20% during the past ten years. Sudden anxiety or even a complete panic attack can appear during any medical procedure and possibly ruin all therapeutic effects. That’s why it’s essential to develop new effective ways to manage anxiety. Medical squeeze bags are becoming one of the top trends for those who suffer from panic attacks and anxiety. Those medical devices might also be an excellent tool for distracting autistic patients during a medical procedure. Medical squeeze bags are relatively cheap, withstand significant physical impact, and are easily replaced. So, it’s not a big worry if any of them are destroyed during a procedure.

Feeding and Oral Care

One of the most underrated ways of using squeeze bags is for feeding and oral care. If patients have problems with chewing and especially sucking processes, medical squeeze bags may be used very effectively with a few simple steps:

Fill the squeeze bag with water or liquid food carefully and ensure that you close the first valve tightly.
Insert the straw into the second valve and make sure that it fits tightly.
The patient can eat his liquid food by simply squeezing the bag, taking small food portions, and swallowing them.

The second new way of using these devices is for careful irrigation of the tongue, teeth, and gums with various liquids. This method might be helpful for treatment, drinking, and many other purposes. Also, it is good enough to be considered a gentle alternative to teeth brushing. Both methods can significantly increase the use of those medical devices in maxillofacial surgery and dentistry.

As a Giveaway Promotional Item

Medical squeeze bags can also be effectively used as a giveaway item in various healthcare institutions. Dravon Medical now lists medical squeeze bags complete with facility logo and contact information custom printed on them. As a result, these healthcare facilities become more recognizable. The following is a brief list of such healthcare institutions:

Dentistry clinics
Blood donation centers
Surgical clinics
General medical care centers
And many others

As medical squeeze bags are inexpensive and, in some cases, used as an individual device for only a single patient (e.g., for oral care, feeding, and oral irrigation), it’s an excellent choice for the healthcare facilities to give them away as a service.

New Trends in Manufacturing Process

The production process of medical squeeze bags needs about two to four separate production lines with varying machines and conveyors. Most often, those lines are responsible for:

The bag formation
Inserting valves
Printing logos
Filling up (mostly IV bags)

Recent machinery trends also find robotic implementations among medical device manufacturing companies.

New Trends in Supply Chain for Medical Squeeze Bag Production

During the past few years, there have been changes to the normal supply chain, especially from China. The supply of any plastic compounds (including valves for bags, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, etc.) has become significantly harder to procure. US manufacturers are finding other significant suppliers of plastic compounds, in particular, the overall import of plastic to the US stays at a steady level thanks to Canada, Saudi Arabia, and India.

Climate Change and Medical Squeeze Bags

Any kind of plastic product, especially if they are produced in massive quantities, has a significant negative impact on the environment. Unfortunately, medical squeeze bags are not an exception. A considerable amount of CO₂ and other pollutants are released into the atmosphere during the production process. There are many ways to decrease possible pollution, but none of them have 100% efficiency yet.

Still, there is a great way to prevent plastic use in the manufacture of medical squeeze bags. The most effective way is to develop a strategy of manufacturing non-plastic IV bags and other medical devices. And this industry is already working on that. According to the statistical data, in 2020, manufacturers of non-plastic medical bags reached $1.51 billion in profits on the US market.

Overall Industry Income Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the medical squeeze bags market, primarily due to the increased use of IV infusions bags. In 2020, overall income on the market of IV bags was about $23,450 million and kept growing. Estimated income rates for the whole industry should reach $38,260 million by 2026. There is a significant probability that profits in the non-plastic and plastic medical squeeze bag market will continue to grow in the next few years.