Clear Catheter Systems recently attended the German Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in Stuttgart, Germany. Perhaps it was fitting that the motto of the program was “Panta Rhei”, which means “everything flows.” We had some great meetings discussing the importance of adequate chest tube flow with surgeons from all over the region, including surgeons from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Multiple discussions were held about chest tube clogging in the post operative period, and we discussed strategies to improve chest tube flow with active tube clearance. Many had seen our publication in this month’s New Technology section of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery (Superior Chest Drainage With an Active Tube Clearance System: Evaluation of a Downsized Chest Tube, Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2011;91:580-583) and are looking forward to giving the system a try. A common theme we heard was that heart surgery cases are getting more difficult as patients are coming to surgery with more antiplatelet therapy, prior operations, and requiring more complex procedures, increasing the demands on chest tubes in the early post operative period. Many of the surgeons we met with are interested in getting started with the PleuraFlow® Active Tube Clearance® System in the coming months. We will be working with our distribution partners there to make this happen.