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Olympus Korea officials test their new hybrid surgical hand instruments Thunderbeat and Endoeye Flex 3-D in front of the press at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul on Monday. (Olympus Korea) |
Olympus, a Japan-based technology company involved in making endoscopy devices, on Monday unveiled a pair of new hybrid medical instruments that would benefit both the doctors who perform surgeries and the patients undergoing them.
The Thunderbeat is an instrument that allows simultaneous tissue cutting and blood vessel sealing. It is the world’s first surgical instrument that integrates an ultrasonic system for tissue cutting and dissection with the electrosurgical technology of bipolar vessel sealing, the company said.
The Thunderbeat will enable doctors to perform their “minimally invasive surgeries” much more efficiently, Olympus said.
Saito Yoshitake, research and development head of Olympus’ medical systems, said that its other instrument, Endoeye Flex, is a 3-D imaging tool that would make medical procedures easier and shorter.
The Endoeye Flex, with a rotatable high-definition dual lens, features a greater depth of field in 3-D, and is compatible with 2-D systems currently used at local hospitals, the R&D manager said, noting that medical institutions will not have to change their 2-D systems to use the imaging device.
“The combination of the two devices that enhance surgical and visual operations will allow cutting, dissecting, sealing and grasping to become easier (for doctors), and patients will feel less pain and face a shorter hospitalization time,” Saito said at a press briefing.
Olympus Korea’s medical business head Takeshi Tamai said the company aims to grab a market share of about 20 percent with its “single convergent instrument” in the advanced energy device segment in Korea in three years.
The 70 billion won ($66 million) Korean market for advanced energy devices, currently dominated by U.S. players such as Johnson & Johnson and Covidien, had featured instruments that allowed doctors to perform ultrasonic tissue cutting and bipolar vessel sealing separately.
“We are currently a small player with a market share of about 2-3 percent, compared with giants such as Johnson & Johnson. But we seek to change this with our faster and efficient advanced energy device in Korea,” Takeshi told The Korea Herald.
Olympus, widely known for cameras, has been enjoying an annual 15 percent growth in Korea’s medical device sector over the past years, Takeshi noted.
Japan-based Olympus posted 2013 sales of 745 billion yen ($7.3 billion), of which more than 52 percent came from its medical business, the company said.
By Park Hyong-ki (
hkp@heraldcorp.com)
