The FDA has issued a Class I Recall for Mizuho Orthopedic Systems’ OSI Modular Table Systems. The incorrect removal of T-pins that support the bottom base, instead of the T-pins that support the top, may result in the lower table top and patient falling to the floor. http://www.fdanews.com/newsletter/article?issueId=15257&articleId=141718

The FTSE 100 medical devices manufacturer has said it will increase its research and development budget by $300m (£186m) over the next five years and plans to set aside 20pc of this for emerging markets. The investment comes as Smith & Nephew sharpens its focus on countries such as Brazil, Russia, China and India, with [...]

Citing the upcoming 2.3% medical device tax as well as a desire to drive continued growth, Stryker Corporation says it’s going to cut approximately 1,000 jobs by the end of 2013 to reduce costs by over $100 million beginning in 2012. A November 10 announcement said the company was going to cut its global workforce [...]

On November 2, 2011, Integra LifeSciences Holding Corporation announced the launch of a new IBD, the Complete Cervical Intervertebral Body Fusion Device, and the expanded market introduction of the Daytona Deformity Spinal System together with the Stainless Steel Spinal System, both of which were previously released on a limited basis in 2010. IBDs are small, [...]

Spinal USA, headquartered in Pearl, Mississippi, introduced two of the firm’s new spinal treatment devices at the November meeting in Chicago of the North American Spine Society (NASS). The two technologies, which recently received FDA 510(k) clearance, are the Vault Stand Alone ALIF System and the S-LOK PC Posterior Cervical System. Company officials say that the VAULT [...]

The winners of the 2011 Orthopedics This Week Best New Technology award for Spine are: Advanced Biologics, LLC, Aesculap, Inc., AlloSource, CoAlign Innovations, Inc., Ellipse Technologies, Inc., NeuroLogica Corporation, NLT SPINE, Nocimed, LLC, The Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery and Thompson MIS. This annual award rewards inventors, engineering teams, surgeons and their companies who’ve [...]

Currently, more than 30% of knee replacement surgeries suffer from misalignment problems caused by the “fog of surgery” where the precise orientation of internal bones is difficult to determine, asserts Darius Kharabi, vice-president of corporate development for OrthAlign, a privately held medical device company in Aliso Viejo, California. The company was founded in 2008 to [...]

Source: Wikimedia Commons, Morgue File, Jason Howell, Jade and RRY Photo Manipulation Orthopedic surgeon Arun Mullaji of Breach Candy Hospital and Lilavathi Hospital, Mumbai, performed the first iPod Touch assisted knee replacement surgery in Asia. The patient, a 75-year-old man, was able to walk the same day that the surgery was conducted. Smith & Nephew [...]

It is no secret that complex spine reconstruction involving fusions from the thoracic spine to the pelvis are high-risk procedures despite the use of more advanced surgical techniques. Nevertheless long fusions, extending from the thoracic spine to the pelvis, appear to be increasingly common. To look more closely at the outcomes of these kinds of [...]

former senior marketing manager for Kyphon, Inc., pled guilty in federal court on July 7 to ripping off Medtronic Inc. for at least $2.1 million. Jennifer Rutherford was responsible for selecting vendors to supply marketing merchandise that company reps could distribute at trade shows and industry conferences. The merchandise included such items as key chains, [...]