This year's featured leaders illustrate medtech's ability to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing business environment.

Steve Halasey

September 1, 2007

2 Min Read
Advancing Human Tissue Repair

COVER STORY

Return to article:

Private, with a Passion

For more than a decade, Cook Medical has been collaborating with Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) to pioneer a breakthrough technology for the reinforcement and repair of damaged human tissue. Cook Surgisis Biodesign, which over the past 10 years has established a new category in the armamentarium of tissue repair, provides long-term strength and resistance to infection. “It is an advanced material that combines the best features of biologic grafts and synthetic mesh, and it offers physicians and patients an alternative to both of those technologies,” says Andy Cron, vice president and global leader for Cook Surgery.

mx0709p36a.jpg

Surgisis Biodesign material, derived from the small intestine of pigs, communicates with the human patient's body, signaling surrounding tissue to grow across the scaffold it provides. This allows the body to restore itself naturally. Over time, Surgisis Biodesign remodels to become as strong as a patient's own tissue. Once the healing process is complete, the material is undetectable; it provides a permanent repair without being a permanent material. And since the material changes into vascularized tissue, the body's own defense mechanisms provide resistance to infection.

Surgisis Biodesign is being employed in thousands of minimally invasive surgical applications and procedures worldwide. The material is offered through Cook's surgery business unit for such applications as anal fistula repair, inguinal and paraesophageal hernia repair, staple-line reinforcement, and dura mater substitution. The company's women's health business unit offers the Surgisis Biodesign as a natural solution for pelvic floor repair, a treatment option for pelvic organ prolapse. In addition, Cook's urology business unit sells the material for repair of the effects of Peyronie's disease and the treatment of urinary incontinence.

Copyright ©2007 MX

Sign up for the QMED & MD+DI Daily newsletter.

You May Also Like