OR Bench Vise
Reference Number TO 15-00100
Challenge
Medical implants for the stabilisation of bone fractures are frequently used in trauma surgery. Standardized pre-shaped implants are commercially available for the most common fractures and require little or no adaptation to the patient’s anatomy. For some procedures (e.g. pelvis surgery) however the implants need to be bent to fit the anatomical structures; This is commonly accomplished by holding the implant with two pairs of forceps and applying force to the rigid material. Commercially available bending presses for implants help to reduce the physical strength needed for shaping the implant, shape the material, but they have some limitations: their default bending angle does not allow to form a 90° bend, which is needed in many cases; in addition to this these devices take up a lot of space on the sterile instrument table.
Technology
A stainless-steel bench vise has been adapted to the requirements for OR instrumentation so that it can be fully disassembled for cleaning and sterilization. In order to avoid chipping of the implant the jaws of the vise do not have a profile. The stainless steel bench vise helps to save time in the OR since implants can now be adapted very quickly and for all angles; its small size and ease of use makes it easy to integrate the vise into the OR environment and routines.
Commerical Opportunity
Collaboration for further development is possible.
Developmental Status
A prototype is available for clinical testing.
