Surgical Innovations Regulatory News (SUN)

14 Dec 2009 07:00



Surgical Innovations™ Group plc

("SI" or "the Group")

Entry into veterinary market

Surgical Innovations™ Group plc (AIM: SUN), the designer and manufacturer of innovative surgical devices, is delighted to announce the success of its first veterinary laparoscopic procedure, which was carried out by leading veterinary surgeon Romain Pizzi for the first time on a reindeer at Edinburgh Zoo, using the Group's specialist instrumentation.

Commenting on the surgery, Graham Bowland Managing Director of Surgical Innovations Limited, said: "The veterinary market represents a significant opportunity for SI. It is estimated that approximately one in two UK households are pet owners. Veterinary surgeons perform an average of 600,000 open abdominal procedures every year, but it is believed that only 1% of vets currently practice laparoscopic surgery. We are working closely with the UK's leading vets and organisations including the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Ark Surgical, the UK's fastest growing veterinary distributor, to educate the veterinary community of the benefits of laparoscopic surgery. By providing the right instrumentation we hope to enable UK vets to introduce laparoscopic techniques as part of their standard operating procedures."

Open abdominal surgery is currently the standard procedure in animals; however there are a number of negative factors associated with it including more post-operative pain, a higher risk of post-operative complications and infections and a long recovery period. The minimally invasive nature of laparoscopic surgery significantly reduces post-operative pain and the risk of infection, which means the recovery period is faster and the animal requires reduced post-operative care. For veterinary surgeons laparoscopic surgery offers better visualisation of the operated area, allowing them to be more precise and reach areas that are difficult to see in open surgery such as the liver and the pelvic canal.

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Notes to Editors

Surgical Innovations Group plc specialises in the design and manufacture of innovative devices for use in minimally invasive surgery and industrial markets. The Group has two divisions Surgical Innovations Limited and Haemocell Limited

The Group employs over 50 people and has its manufacturing facility based in Leeds, covering 32,000 square feet, which enables the in-house design and manufacture of its own products to the highest quality standards. Surgical Innovations, through an established network of 40 distribution partners, sells in all of the major medical markets including North America, Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia and Australia. 

Surgical Innovations Limited, which is the main division of the Group, is focused on developing medical instruments for the laparoscopic surgery market, minimally invasive surgery of the abdomen. The Group has pioneered the resposable™ concept, which combines both single use and reusable components which ensures an ongoing revenue stream and delivers the optimum procedure performance to cost ratio. The Groups products include:

In addition to its own branded instruments, the Group also designs and manufactures devices on a private label basis for large medical device companies including Teleflex Medical, Gyrus, Olympus and Cardinal Health

Haemocell Limited specialises in equipment for Autologous Blood Transfusion, which is the collection and re-infusion of a patient's own blood either during or after surgery, eliminating the widely-documented risks of infection from donated blood

For more information, see www.surginno.com