Medtron's $235 million acquisition of RF Surgical Systems Inc

Medtron recently announced that it has signed a final agreement to acquire RF Surgical Systems, an RF Surgical Systems company, for about $235 million. Located in Carlsbad, California, the medical device company specializes in detecting and preventing items left in patients after surgery (sponges, gauze or turbans for surgery). Other terms of the acquisition agreement have not yet been disclosed.
Despite strict surgical sponge counting protocols and the efforts of medical associations to raise awareness in this area, there are occasional surgical medical items that remain in patients after the wound has been stitched. A sponge, gauze, or cloth left in the patient's body may require additional X-rays and corrective surgery to remove these medical supplies left in the body. If left unprocessed, these legacy medical supplies can cause serious problems and even life-threatening problems, such as abdominal abscesses, intestinal fistula or intestinal obstruction, colon perforation, bleeding or infection.
RF Surgical system is designed to be an aid to manual counting methods to help avoid incidents such as surgically leftover sponge events that are serious, clinically injury-effective, but preventable. The patented detection system tracks and monitors medical sponges, gauze and napkins left in blood, dense tissue and bone through low-RF signals, which are embedded in RF tags. The technology is designed to reduce complications due to surgery, reduce unnecessary surgery, and improve operating room efficiency.
" patient first. Improving patient safety and outcomes is a top priority for our daily work, and RF surgery technology is fully in line with our strategic development, a simple and cost-effective solution that avoids complications from surgery," said Chris Barry, Senior Vice President of Medtron and President of Surgical Innovations, part of the minimally invasive therapeutics business group.
I'm excited to be part of Medtron's team, and Medtron's long-standing commitment to patients is in line with RF Surgical," said John Buhler, CEO of RF Surgical. The
is in line with Medtron's economic value strategy. Working with healthcare stakeholders, Medtron is transforming to deliver both clinical and economic value to healthcare systems. Medtron focuses on transitioning to value-based healthcare and plays a leading role in delivering affordable, high-quality care to more people.
RF Surgical will be part of Medtron's minimally invasive therapeutics business group's surgical innovation business. The deal is expected to meet Medtron's long-term financial strategy for mergers and acquisitions and will not affect annual earnings. The transaction is awaiting regulatory approval and is expected to close in August 2015. (39 Health Network)