FDA approves Power Medical Interventions Surgical Devices – iDrive and iConsole for Minimally Invasive Endoscopic Surgical Procedures

Technology look can sometimes fool you, as the tool almost looks like something right out of Black and Decker. Also, note there is a console that wirelessly connects to the iDrive so I am guessing this could be a computer display.

If you are going to have one of those natural orifice surgical procedures with no incisions, this could be the device to do the job, through your nose, belly button, you name it. The device also is capable of stapling with the various attachments that go along with it and the web site states the item will go on sale immediately. BD

The Food and Drug Administration granted marketing clearance Wednesday to a console-and-power unit for detachable surgical instruments developed by Power Medical Interventions Inc.

The Langhorne, Pa., medical-device company plans to begin selling the iDrive Intelligent Power unit and iConsole “effective immediately.”

The iDrive is a hand-held, computer-controlled power unit to which any of the company’s Intelligent Surgical Instruments can be attached.

The iConsole is a wireless device that communicates directly with the iDrive during surgical procedures to output specific auditory and visual reference information through a speaker and liquid crystal display.

From the website:

Intelligent Surgical Instruments™ are the first computer-assisted, power-actuated endomechanical surgical instruments, used for cutting, stapling and tissue manipulation. PMI has applied digital technology to the field of endomechanical surgical instruments. These instruments can be used in a variety of procedures in open surgery, minimally invasive surgery (MIS), and in the emerging field of Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery, or NOTES™. We believe that, compared to conventional endomechanical devices, our Intelligent Surgical Instruments™ offer greater precision and consistency, superior compressive force, improved access to anatomical sites and enhanced ease of use.