Making surgery more accessible

Within developing countries, a disproportionate number of people die as a result of inadequate surgical supplies and compromised surgical sterility. The Arbutus DrillCover System, recently made available from Securos Surgical, was developed to provide a more accessible sterile solution.

Orthopedic power equipment (especially drills) is high tech, with complex rigid technical specifications and must be durable, ergonomic and accommodating to a sterile environment. Such rigors make them cost prohibitive for physicians as well as veterinarians in developing countries and even in developed countries. Although home-use power drills have become common place in general veterinary practice, reliable sterility with their use continues to be compromising. A wide variety of wraps for hardware drills are utilized in general practice (both human and veterinary), but breaks in sterility are common with their use. The same solution that is working for human orthopedics in Africa, where Ebola is a real and present issue, is now available for veterinarians in the US.

Arbutus has developed the DrillCover System, which is a reusable, cost effective and 100% sterile option to the use of present drill covers. The hardware drill is dropped into the sterile linen ‘bag’, after which the chuck adapter is inserted into the drill and threaded to provide a fully sealed, sterile DrillCover System.

Arbutus originated from a University of British Columbia, Biomedical Engineering project, and subsequently led to creation of the social enterprise Arbutus Medical in 2014. Based in Vancouver, Canada, Arbutus develops innovative surgical equipment to create global access to safe surgery; as there are 5 billion people worldwide without access to safe surgery and 2 billion without access to any surgery (Lancet 2015).