96.5 F
San Fernando
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Surgeons Tap into Spinal Kits

ECA Medical Instru-ments has created a disposable kit for spine surgeries that the company said functioned successfully during its debut in the operating room. The Newbury Park medical device company has an established business selling one-time kits of instruments for knee, hip and cranio-maxillofacial operations. Its new product is for spinal implants, such as rods and artificial discs. The kit, the Revolution Spinal Fixation System, was used successfully for the first time in an operation Oct. 6 performed by a surgeon in North Carolina, according to ECA. The sterile-packed kit secured the first Revolution Spine System lumbar implant from Intelligent Implant Systems, a company in Charlotte, N.C. “This first surgery is the beginning of a change in the way single and two-level spinal procedures are done and will be done in the future,” Marc Richelsoph, chief executive of Intelligent Implant Systems, said in a statement. “The future of spinal implants will be sterile implant and instrument systems, and IIS is leading the way with the help of ECA, the market leader in single-use instrumentation.” James Schultz, executive vice president at ECA, said the technology is novel given that for decades the medical field has relied on reusable instruments that are costly and, if not cleaned properly, can lead to infection. The kits have an apparatus to immobilize a segment of the spine during surgery. They also include a special torque wrench, screwdrivers, probes and compression shafts used in procedures. The cost for the spinal kits averages slightly less than $1,000, but individual prices vary depending on the volume of the order. ECA makes the kits and sells them to implant companies, which sell the instruments and the implants as a package to hospitals and other medical providers. Schultz is projecting that the Revolution kit could save the health care industry millions, given that worldwide there are at least 2 million spine implants done every year, and by using ECA’s sterile kit hospitals save up to an estimated $1,200 a procedure in sterilization costs. “The hospitals save money because they don’t need to send the instruments out, saving them money as well as time,” Schultz said. ECA got into the spinal surgery market because it already had a reputation for disposable kits and because spine implants with reusable instruments had safety concerns and high costs. “We provide a solution that is clinically robust and has measurable economic value,” said Schultz. “There are 9 million fracture repair implants per year, and 2 million spine implants per year. We serve both markets with a wide range of disposable stand-alone instruments as well as turnkey, sterile-packed procedural kits.” – Nicole Pinto

Featured Articles

Related Articles