Thomas Ferro, orthopedic surgeon and Medical Director of the Bone & Joint Center at Arroyo Grande, California, has performed the first knee replacement procedure using FDA cleared single-use, cordless, handheld power tools in an orthopedic operation in the United States. According to a Business Wire report, specialty surgical power tools that are used to cut and shape bone are required in over 1.5 million orthopedic procedures annually in the United States.
Single Use, Cordless Power Tools Debut in Surgery
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“I evaluated the Insurgical tools after my staff discovered a tear in the sterile wrapping on the tools we were scheduled to use, ” explained Ferro. “Instead of waiting two hours or so to allow time to wash and re-sterilize the compromised tools, we used the Insurgical saw and drill, which were available at the hospital for such emergencies. Within a matter of minutes we were able to continue with the procedure, saving the hospital, the patient, and me much valuable time.”
Ferro said that the saw had sufficient power and battery life to make precise bone cuts. “I plan to have these tools as back up at every hospital I work in, specifically for situations like the one we encountered today, ” he said. “I will be utilizing the system as my primary power system at our ASC (ambulatory surgical center), where we routinely perform outpatient unicompartmental arthroplasties, and where the physical and economic constraints limit our ability to handle multiple surgical cases requiring saws and drills.”
Company officials say that, unlike traditional orthopedic power tool kits which are reused on hundreds of patients and reprocessed at the hospital after each surgery, Insurgical tools are supplied to the hospital clean, pre-sterilized, in a single-use format and are purchased by hospitals to relieve instrument backlogs, which are common in hospital-based tool reprocessing departments.
“Performing the first U.S. orthopaedic surgery with single-use power tools is a significant milestone for Insurgical, and for the field of orthopaedic surgery, ” said Pete Aman, President and CEO of Insurgical LLC. Insurgical is a privately held medical device technology company that is based in Austin, Texas.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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