RE: OUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO ELECTROSURGERY
In 1959, when we entered the electrosurgical equipment market, there was no mention of leakage current, safety, solid state circuits or disposables. Electrosurgery started and ended with the Bovie.
In spite of this situation, we decided to introduce many technical innovations such as:
Low voltage switching of the unit. In 1960 when Bovie was switching the 110 V supply circuit, we switched our equipment with 8 V. Today, all new units have the low voltage switching.
The sentry in the patient circuit (return electrode monitor) provided a new direction toward safety (1960). The Bovie added it five years later and Valleylab 17 years later.
Hand-activated forceps and pencils (1961) provided greater convenience to the surgeons. It took us years to convince the profession and now, all new units provide this feature, 25 to 30 years later.
In 1960, we introduced the first major electrosurgical machine which replaced the spark-gap generator by an electronic modulator, ten years before the solid state manufacturers "invented" it.
We were the first to recognize the complex problems between electrosurgical applications and patient monitoring. Therefore, as early as 1960, we equipped our major units with a monitor blanking system. It took our competition 16 years, when Valleylab introduced the same mechanism to their unit.
In 1970, we started to equip all operating room oriented electrosurgical units with a special bipolar generator. Five years later, the Bovie added this feature and six years later Valleylab.
Again, in 1970, when laparoscopic sterilization was introduced in this country, we provided to the leading houses, Eder and Wolf, specialty electrosurgical units, initially for unipolar and later for bipolar sterilization. Over 3,500 hospitals were equipped with our generators.
When colonoscopic polypectomy was originated in the early 1970's, we again pioneered the electrosurgical requirements and developed special generators with the variable blend mode.
Microsurgery, particularly reanastomosis of the fallopian tube, opened new requirements for electrosurgical instrumentation and we introduced the MICRO/MACRO circuits with respective microsurgical instruments, handles, electrodes and forceps (1972). The majority of microsurgeons use and depend on our instrumentation.
In 1970 we introduced the automatic output compensation circuit in the unipolar, and two years later in the bipolar generators, known as SMART-O-MATICÔ. 20 years later, our competition "invented" the feature, well known and appreciated by many physicians for years.
The BI-CO-MATICÔ, a switching system of the bipolar generator with handswitching forceps, became standard in our equipment (1972). Years later, handswitching bipolar forceps were introduced by our competitors in a much more cumbersome fashion.
The first bipolar laparoscopic forceps and respective bipolar generators were introduced by us in 1972. Within a few years, it became the method of choice forcing all competitors to join our direction.
Bipolar submucosal turbinate surgery, an ambulatory procedure was developed by us, in conjunction with Dr. Dennis in 1988. The procedure is widely used in hospitals throughout the nation and in many other parts of the world.
The BI-POL CUTTERÔ, bipolar cutting was introduced by us in 1990, continuing the trend of innovations.
In addition to these primary introductions, many minor innovations in equipment and accessories have been developed by us.
ELMED has been driven by the desire to provide state-of-the-art technology, clinically based and reliable. Our one day turnaround time service is recognized and appreciated by many professionals. We hope that this booklet and catalog will assist you and your surgical responsibilities.
We are happy to be of service to you.
Sincerely yours,
Karl Hausner
President, ELMED INCORPORATED