From Professor Blanco

Some 25 years ago I was asked by a large medical device company to serve as its engineering expert in a court case involving early design trocars. To do this, I reviewed dozens of patents, became familiar with in all of them and realized the deficiencies in all of them. I wondered why such large companies had not designed something better: They all had similar approaches with only small design variations.

Soon thereafter, I learned I needed surgery to remove my gall bladder. It was during my surgery that I learned first-hand about the complications of minimally invasive surgery. My own endoscopic, outpatient surgery resulted in a trocar injury that resulted in conversion to an open surgery (laparotomy) to finish the case and repair the trocar-caused damages.

Afterward, I asked what happened and was told that a "minor" problem had occurred, something that happens sometimes . . .they evaded an answer and insisted that my recovery would be fine. I left the hospital in a few days. I did not know then that I had become one of the many “accidents’ in the history of trocar endoscopy!

Instead of leaving the hospital with three or four tiny punctures and no visible scar, I had all of those holes and a big incision that later caused the start of a ventral hernia and extensive internal scarring and adhesions from which I still suffer. I decided then and there that I had to do something about trocars – I understood the design flaws, I had become part of those statistics of trocar injuries, and I knew there was a better way.

My work on the design of a safe trocar has taken me over ten years. It was not until 1999 that a provisional patent applications was submitted, followed by a formal one that was later granted. Dozens of trocar designs were developed, prototyped and tested until our current Safety Trocar was found. Our team at ERBLAN Surgical is proud of the products we’ve developed and we know they will solve many of the safety problems of minimally invasive surgery.

We are committed to our ultimate client – the surgical patient facing laparoscopic or other minimally invasive surgery. Safety is the ultimate goal of our devices. We pride ourselves on innovation, simplicity and safety and are convinced our devices will reduce the risks associated with minimally invasive surgery in the future. To learn more, please see our intellectual property portfolio that includes our Trocar, Insufflator Needle and Universal Gas Seal patents. If you would like a demonstration or more information, please contact us.

President & CEO