Sutures and staples are the usual options for closing wounds postoperatively, but they can be painful and require surgical skills. The microMend Skin Closure Device, produced by Seattle-based KitoTech Medical, provides a potentially better alternative. The design of the microMend is conceptually similar to a bandage, like Steri-Strip. The device is (Read more...)
Tag: Orthopedic Surgery
Cast21 Offers a Lightweight, Waterproof Cast: Interview with CEO Ashley Moy
Anyone who has been in an orthopedic cast knows their inconveniences. They are cumbersome, must be kept dry, which makes bathing difficult, and can cause the skin underneath to become itchy, smelly, and irritated. Cast21 has designed a cast that solves those problems. The Chicago-based company uses a lattice frame that provides more breathabil (Read more...)
Mazor X Robotic Spinal Surgery System Cleared in Europe
Mazor Robotics, an Israeli firm, announced that its Mazor X Surgical Assurance Platform has received the European CE Mark of approval. The system, used to perfect spinal surgeries, is being co-marketed by Medtronic, which just invested $40 million into Mazor Robotics. The Mazor X consists of a pre-op software package that helps to establish a (Read more...)
Beyond Gaming: How Osso VR is Already Transforming Surgical Training
In a nondescript office building in downtown Palo Alto, I enter a conference room with the furnishings of a typical Silicon Valley tech company. Suddenly, my view changes, and I am transported to the inside of a brightly lit operating room, myself fully gowned and staring down at the exposed knee of an anesthetized patient. I turn my (Read more...)
LessRay Radiation Reduction System for ORs Using Fluoroscopes
NuVasive, a company based in San Diego, California, is now making available its LessRay radiation dose-reduction system. It consists of a computer cart that connects to an operating room’s fluoroscopy system. The fluoroscope can be set to a lower level of X-ray exposure, and the LessRay, using its proprietary software algorithms, then correct (Read more...)
EU Gives First Approval for Ultra-High-Field MRI Scanner, The Siemens Magnetom Terra
Siemens Healthineers just won the first European regulatory approval for an ultra-high-field MRI scanner to be used in clinical practice. The Magnetom Terra sports a magnetic field strength of 7 Tesla, which is considerably more powerful than 3 Tesla, the current high-end standard. MRIs of such strength have been used in research hospitals for year (Read more...)
UPRIGHT GO Posture Trainer: A Medgadget Product Review
Everyone knows that posture can affect one’s physical health, but who would have thought it can also impact one’s emotions and psychological wellbeing? Studies show that maintaining a slumped posture for extended periods of time can decrease one’s energy, foster a sense of helplessness, and ultimately lead to a depressed mood. On (Read more...)
Magnetic Fields to Destroy Bacteria on Artificial Joints
Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a new technique using high-frequency alternating magnetic fields to heat artificial joints in the body and destroy bacterial films on their surfaces. Bacterial infections on artificial joints used in knee and hip replacements are a common and serious complication. The bacteria tend to (Read more...)
3D Printed Models Help Surgeons Work on Kids’ Slipped Femurs
Individual patients undergoing hip surgeries have unique anatomies that demand personalized attention by the surgical team. In children, the level of detail is greater and it’s even more crucial to achieve optimal results since the patients will want to run, jump, and swim for many years to come. Teens and pre-teens, and particularly boys, ca (Read more...)
Smart Undergarment to Prevent Back Pain
Engineers at Vanderbilt University have developed a smart undergarment that supports the back during lifting tasks, to reduce the risk of back injury. The team recently unveiled the technology at the Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics in Brisbane, Australia. “I’m sick of Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne being the only ones (Read more...)
New Joint Implant Coating to Prevent Bacterial Infections
Much too often artificial joints become infected after implantation and revision procedures are common. Antibiotic-enriched bone cement is often positioned within an infected joint after removing the implant and allowed to do its thing for a number of weeks before a new implant is introduced. The problem is that the bone cement is limited in i (Read more...)
PET Tracer to Directly Detect Blood Clots
Researchers in Germany have developed a fluorine-based tracer compound that can bind with high affinity to small clots, allowing doctors to image them using positron emission tomography (PET). Blood clots can cause heart attacks and strokes. Doctors often need to find clots using imaging techniques, so that they can treat them or identify where thr (Read more...)
PREVENA DUO Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Treats Two Incisions at Same Time
Acelity, based in San Antonio, Texas, is releasing the PREVENA DUO Incision Management System, a disposable negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) system that can be used to manage two surgical incisions at the same time. The company expects the PREVENA DUO to be used post vascular harvesting, breast reconstruction, and ortho trauma procedures (Read more...)
Myoscience iovera System Cleared for Treating Painful Osteoarthritic Knees
Myoscience, a company based in Fremont, California won FDA clearance for its iovera cryoneurolysis system to be used for symptom and pain relief in the knees arising from osteoarthritis. The company’s so-called Focused Cold Therapy delivery system pumps pressurized liquid nitrous oxide (N2O) to the treatment tip, where it is made to (Read more...)
Scopis Introduces Mixed Reality to Simplify Surgical Navigation
Scopis, a surgical navigation company, announced a mixed reality surgical navigation system that uses the Microsoft HoloLens for spinal surgery applications. It combines current surgical navigation technologies with Microsoft’s augmented reality headset to show surgeons where they’re drilling into in real-time, (Read more...)
COOLIEF Cooled Radiofrequency Cleared to Relieve Pain in Osteoarthritic Knees
Halyard Health, a company out of Alpharetta, Georgia, landed FDA clearance for its COOLIEF Cooled Radiofrequency technology to be used for treatment of moderate to severe chronic knee pain arising from osteoarthritis. It may be particularly beneficial for patients who are poor candidates for knee replacements or that may choose to wait fo (Read more...)
Stryker to Use Microsoft HoloLens Augmented Reality Goggles to Design ORs
Stryker, the company best known for orthopedic implants and devices, is also in the business of designing operating rooms. Planning an efficient surgical environment that can serve various needs has meant trying different configurations in real life, or on a small, flat computer screen. Since it seems like we’re living in the future, Stryker (Read more...)
Scaffolds Covered in Stem Cells and Silver Ions to Prevent Osteomyelitis
Bone infections are often very difficult to treat, and with the rise of MRSA this issue has become only more challenging. A team of researchers from University of Missouri, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, and Silpakorn University in Thailand has developed a way of making tissue scaffol (Read more...)
FlexDex Minimally Invasive Surgical System Used in Real Operations (video)
FlexDex, a new minimally invasive surgical tool system that we’ve grown quite fond of, has now been used for the first time in a number of operations at Michigan Medicine. We tried the FlexDex ourselves during a visit to the company’s offices last year and, hoping not to exaggerate, we felt that the system really is […]
This (Read more...)
FlowAid FA100 Contracts Calf Muscles to Stimulate Increased Blood Flow, Now FDA Cleared
FlowAid Medical Technologies, a company based in New York City, won FDA clearance for its FA100 Sequential Continuous Contraction Device (SCCD). It’s designed to help promote blood circulation, reduce swelling, prevent atrophy, and lower the chances of venous thrombosis in post-surgical patients by electrically stimulating the calf muscl (Read more...)