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London, UK - 15th February,
2006 - Heightened awareness among both electrosurgical device companies and
consumers about the potential spread of communicable diseases during surgery is
encouraging the uptake of disposable electrosurgical devices. However, high
customer expectations regarding the provision of after-sales and service support
is putting market participants, particularly smaller companies, under tremendous
pressure.
With single-use medical devices
being recycled in up to one-fifth of the hospitals in some European countries,
medical technology companies are pushing for changes to existing regulations on
reprocessing these medical devices. Rising awareness about communicable diseases
and the need to ensure higher safety and health standards has triggered a review
of the European Union's Medical Devices Directive. This is likely to introduce
regulatory changes that promote the adoption of disposable surgical devices,
including electrosurgical devices.
At present, however, cost
containment issues are causing several hospitals to continue investing in
reusable devices. Device to device, reusable accessories are much more expensive
than their disposable counterparts. "However, considering their effect on price
per surgical procedure, reusable devices are much more effective at containing
costs", notes Frost & Sullivan Healthcare Analyst Claire Staniforth. "It is
usually necessary to purchase a new batch of electrosurgical reusable
accessories only once a year or even less. This will impact market revenues."
Over time though, strong growth
is anticipated for disposable electrosurgical accessories and for smoke
evacuators. Unlike the Netherlands, evacuators are not considered a compulsory
piece of equipment across the rest of Europe. As hospitals become increasingly
conscious of employee health and safety, sales of smoke evacuator units is set
to rise. This trend will be bolstered by prospective legislation enforcing the
use of smoke evacuators across the whole of Europe by 2007.
An initial boom in device sales
is expected to follow the implementation of such legislation. At the same time,
the requirement of one smoke machine - priced between $2,500 and $4,500 - per
electrosurgical generator will cause a massive growth in market size in 2007.
Novel technologies are
underlining renewed interest in electrosurgical devices. For instance, the
introduction of electrosurgical units and accessories specific to a certain type
of surgery, for example gynaecology or urology, is poised to boost the sales of
specialist surgical packages.
Reinforcing the expansion of
the European electrosurgical devices from $171.6 million in 2004 to $247.2
million in 2011 will be a number of complementary trends. These include the
increased adoption of minimally invasive surgical techniques and of day surgery.
Simultaneously, an overall upsurge in surgical procedures related to a rapidly
aging population, of non-essential lifestyle surgical procedures with a purely
cosmetic outcome as well as the rising incidence of lifestyle-related clinical
conditions (obesity, gall bladder and pancreatic diseases) that require surgical
intervention are set to encourage continued growth in the electrosurgical
devices market.
Amidst this, a real challenge
faced by electrosurgical device companies is that some surgeons have a low level
of awareness about the effectiveness of electrosurgery, as an alternative to
traditional, cold-steel surgical techniques.
"This is where companies must
introduce workshops in hospitals or ensure that they are involved with surgeons
from the first day of their training," advises Ms. Staniforth. "Otherwise, the
next generation of surgeons will become reliant and therefore, comfortable with
traditional surgical methods. If this is the case, companies will see a
reduction in interest from the new generation of surgeons and sales will take a
turn for the worse."
In addition, high customer
expectation levels of after-sales and service support are making it increasingly
hard for market participants to comply with the expectations of customers as in
most cases, it involves significant additional costs. This situation is making
survival particularly hard for smaller companies as, in all probability, they
lack the geographic coverage or staffing capabilities required to satisfy
clients' needs.
"Companies that can offer a
complete product portfolio, with high levels of after-sales and service support
can be expected to experience moderate growth in the maturing market," says Ms.
Staniforth. "Participants that stay close to the end user, and collect enough
feedback related to what is desirable in terms of clinical application, will
have the knowledge to lead market trends. In doing so, these companies will
present partnership potential to surgical facilities that will offer sufficient
strategic benefit and ensure continued revenue generation."
For more details , contact :
Radhika Menon Theodore, Corporate Communications, at
rmtheodore@frost.com
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