Medical device firms are adopting disposable surgical instruments and kits to cut cost, improve safety installing orthopaedic implant devices
Newbury Park, CA, USA, October 22, 2012 / B3C newswire / - ECA Medical Instruments, the leading designer and manufacturer of single procedure torque limiting surgical instruments and kits to the medical industry and surgeons worldwide, announced today the introduction of new instruments and kits for securing orthopaedic implants. ECA’s Model 900 series of surgical kits are designed for use by orthopaedic surgeons and promise to provide consistently accurate torque needed to secure implant screws, fasteners and connectors and to reduce per procedure costs with the elimination of recurring operational overhead to support reusable instruments.
The Model 900 series includes three single-procedure surgical kit configurations for general orthopaedic reconstructive surgery, small bone and trauma procedures and for spine implants. Each kit includes several popular torque limiting and fixed-driver instruments regularly used by surgeons to fix and secure implants within patients. Orthopaedic implants use a variety of plates, braces, brackets and rods that need to be secured by precision torqueing of fasteners and connectors.
“The Model 900 series of surgical kits were created in response to industry demand by surgeons and hospitals for precision and low cost torque instruments to drive out costs and guarantee accurate torque for the complete range of orthopaedic procedures,” said John Nino., ECA’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Current torque devices can fall out of calibration. They require regular factory checks and re-calibration, need costly and meticulous cleaning and re-sterilization after each procedure,” he said. “In contrast, ECA’s disposable instruments and kits are factory set and precise each time, come sterile packed ready for use in the operating room with the intended implant and can be recycled after use,” Nino said.
Industry cost savings are potentially more than $400 per procedure and over $1 billion per year in the US alone where over 3 million orthopaedic implants occur annually. Moreover, disposable torque limiting surgical kits eliminate the risk of hospital acquired infection (HAI) and allow more efficient use of hospital operating rooms, reduce inventory levels and cut operating costs all considered critical goals by hospital leaders to achieve cost savings and efficiency mandates. ECA Model 900 product line also insures a kit is always on hand in the hospital, ready for unscheduled and emergency procedures, which solves a major loss of revenue problem for hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers relying on existing reusable torque instruments and tools.
ECA’s Model 900 series surgical instruments are made of engineered polymers and surgical stainless steel materials and produced in Class 7 clean rooms under strict quality controls. They are all designed and manufactured in the U.S. at the firm’s facilities here. ECA customers are major medical device and implant companies located worldwide. ECA products may be purchased off-the-shelf for private label or OEMs may work with the ECA design team collaborating on custom designs and configurations. ECA is a turnkey product company uniquely positioned to take a customer’s torque instrument designs and kits, engineer a solution and have it ready for FDA approval quickly. Time to market produces needed competitive advantage in the fast changing healthcare industry.
Model 900 series kits are ideal for hip, knee, shoulder, cranio-maxillofacial, spinal fusion as well as small bone and trauma implants such as clavicle, hands and feet. The kits include torque instruments ranging from one lb./in to over 90 lb./in for securing knee and hip implants.
About ECA Medical Instruments
ECA Medical Instruments, an American Capital company, was founded in 1979 and located in southern California. ECA is the industry leader in single-procedure torque limiting instruments and kits. The company has manufactured and delivered over 20 million precision torque instruments to the world’s leading producers of cardiac rhythm management, neuromodulation, cardiovascular and orthopaedic implants resulting in over 500 million surgical actuations without fail. Every 22 seconds of everyday an ECA torque instrument is used to secure a medical implant—one patient at a time. ECA was recently named Business of the Year 2012 by the Pacific Coast Business Times.
Contact
James B. Schultz
Executive Vice President
Phone: +1 805-376-2509 x213
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