Newbury Park, Calif.-based ECA Medical Instruments, a designer of single-procedure torque-limiting and fixed-driver surgical instruments and kits, recently introduced a new line of fixed-driver surgical instruments featuring the company’s patented Wick Away technology. Wick Away is designed for use by orthopedic surgeons and is intended to provide a consistently secure grip during surgical procedures by wicking away debris and fluids into the waffle geometry and crevices of the polymer handle. ECA sells Wick Away products as does its partner Greatbatch Medical.

According to officials at ECA, the technology offers the tactile properties and grip needed by surgeons for surgeries where a fixed-driver instrument is used to secure implant screws, fasteners and connectors. The line of Wick Away products includes single-procedure instruments for use in general orthopedic reconstructive surgery, small-bone and trauma procedures and for spine implants. Each instrument can be modified to conform to the stainless steel shaft lengths and tip geometries used by medical implant companies, officials also noted.

“Our family of fixed-driver instrumentation employing Wick Away technology received top marks from leading orthopedic surgeons during our product design and voice-of-the-customer studies,” said John Nino, ECA’s president and CEO. “The solid grip and ease of use are unprecedented in a disposable instrument and are a perfect complement to our single-procedure torque-limiting instruments and orthopedic procedural kits.”

According to the company, orthopedic implant makers are adopting sterile-packed, disposable torque-limiting and fixed-driver instruments to reduce per-procedure costs by eliminating some of the recurring operational overhead of traditional reusable instruments that require extensive handling, cleaning, inspection and re-sterilization after each use. Costly and potentially deadly hospital-borne and surgical-site infections also can be reduced by adopting sterile single-procedure instruments.

ECA’s kits may be purchased off-the-shelf for private label or ECA works with OEMs on custom configurations.