FlexDex Intuitive Laparoscopic Instruments Going on Sale in U.S

Robotic surgical systems, such as those from Intuitive Surgical and TransEnterix, can be prohibitively expensive for many, if not most, hospitals. FlexDex, a company based outside of Detroit, Michigan, offers a much more affordable alternative for performing many minimally invasive procedures. Unlike existing laparoscopic devices, FlexDex’s technology relies on a so called “virtual center” to transfer the movement of the wrist to the tip of the instrument in an intuitive fashion. This allows the user to move the wrist in the same direction as the intended movement of the instrument’s tip and therefore makes training and execution much easier and simpler. We recently tried using a FlexDex device and, having played with laparoscopic tools before, were very much impressed.

Now Olympus has just announced that it’s partnering with FlexDex to distribute FlexDex’s Needle Driver instrument in the United States. This represents a comprehensive launch of FlexDex’s technology to the U.S. market, since until now FlexDex only provided its technology to a few hospitals in order to learn and collect data for publication.

Here’s a video presenting FlexDex’s instrument system:

And here’s a short demo of a twelve year-old with minimal training using a FlexDex suture driver:

Source: www.medgadget.com