SurgiQuest, Inc. develops and markets innovative access technologies for robotic and laparoscopic surgery that increase perioperative efficiency and improve both clinical outcomes for patients and financial outcomes for hospitals.
SurgiQuest was founded on the belief that the surgery of the future couldn’t be performed with the technology of the past.
Incorporated in 2006 and headquartered in Connecticut, SurgiQuest set it sights on developing a radically different laparoscopic trocar design that eliminated the circular seals and duckbill valves that had plagued conventional trocars since the early 1990’s.
Company executives, many of whom came from stapling and laparoscopy pioneer United States Surgical Corporation, immediately recognized that SurgiQuest’s technology had the capability to transform laparoscopic surgery not only by eliminating the hassles of conventional trocars which included scope smudging, fragmented specimen removal, and seal disintegration but by enabling the use of multiple instruments and tools that were no longer limited to cylindrical design.
However, the development process quickly identified additional benefits that went well beyond eliminating the hassles of conventional trocars. Because conventional insufflators lacked the flow capabilities to operate the new valve-free trocar design, the company developed an ancillary control unit that, in addition to providing the necessary power to create and maintain an invisible air barrier within the trocar cannula’s housing, created a surgical pneumoperitoneum that was far more stable than anything surgeons had previously experienced and continually evacuated surgical smoke and plume due to a revolutionary, circulatory flow design. The combination of this valve-free trocar and circulatory insufflation unit became the foundation of AirSeal®, the world’s first and only integrated access system for laparoscopic and robotic surgery.
Soon after launch, the company discovered that surgeons could now operate without fear of losing pneumoperitoneum even in the most challenging situations, including colpotomy in total laparoscopic or robotic hysterectomy or the continuous use of suction to remove blood, irrigation fluid, and even excessive surgical smoke from the operative field. In addition to these operative benefits, anesthesia teams have reported that patients seem more stable and are easier to ventilate during procedures where the AirSeal® System is used. Based on these early, anecdotal reports, the company is now studying key anesthesia metrics including Peak Pressures and End Tidal CO2 to assess the technology’s impact on pulmonary compliance.
An initial prospective comparison between the AirSeal® System and a conventional laparoscopic trocar/insufflation system identified that the use of AirSeal® reduced both overall procedure time by approximately 15% and carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption by the patient, believed to be a significant contributor to post-operative shoulder pain. The company is now researching these and other metrics in prospective, randomized studies in a number of surgical procedures.
As a company, SurgiQuest is focused on how its technology can improve not only how surgical operations are performed but by how patients respond to surgery itself, both during and after the procedure.