Custom-Designed Surgical Instruments, From Initial Concept to the Operating Room
Today’s surgeons encounter various challenges in the operating room. These challenges can stand in the way of patient safety and successful surgical outcomes.
For surgeries that require implants, not only is it important for surgeons to be equipped with the best implants and best surgical instruments, but there are other design features that must be considered:
- Connectivity/interface between implant and instrument must be strong
- Instrument must be easily attached/detached from implant
- Instrument must be easy to use, no fiddle factors
- Visual obstruction of instrument must be minimal to maintain visual access to surgical site
- Possibility of future revisions must be maintained
How IDT Can Help
The three most common instrumentation challenges presented to IDT are:
- A new instrument is needed to perform a newly developed surgical procedure to improve patient outcomes.
- A new instrument is needed for an existing implant, since the design of the previous instrumentation and instrument/implant interface were neglected prior to launching the implant /instrument system.
- Retrofit existing instruments with new design features.
Instrument design is an integral part of the implant design and cannot be neglected or delayed until after the implant design is completed.
An implant system is not only measured by how it performs in the surgical site post-surgery, but also by how easily it is implanted during surgery. A well-designed instrument will reduce surgery time and blood loss and improve surgical outcomes.