Kurt Gampp, COO: “We’re good at bringing new products to market quickly to satisfy surgeons’ needs for emerging procedures.”

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A good partnership balances strengths and weakness to ach­ieve successes that would be harder to achieve as an individual. Kurt Gampp and Gregg Scheller found­ed Syn­ergetics USA Inc. nearly 20 years ago and have built a successful company based on their res­pective strengths.

As Gampp describes it, he is a “manufacturing guy through and through.” He says his forte is sitting down and developing the processes required to manufacture devices, as well as collaborating with Scheller, an engineer, in developing de­signs to create new products.

When Gampp and Scheller discovered that the leading manufacturers of retinal instruments were taking six months to repair instruments, causing hospitals to buy unnecessary inventory, the two saw an op­portunity in the marketplace. “As em­ployee No. 1, I sat in our basement head­quarters and taught myself how to repair retinal instruments,” Gampp says.

Synergetics Inc. entered the market in 1991 and offered a one-week repair turnaround. “We gained quite a bit of popularity and created a good revenue stream,” Gampp says. This allowed the company to take the next step and develop its own retinal surgical devices.

The creation of new products was where the partnership between Gampp and Scheller was key because they were able to utilize each other’s talents to build their company. “This is a strong point,” Gampp says. “Scheller being an engineer and me, a surgical instrument maker, allowed for the development of new pro­ducts. We developed our line and patented it in 1992, as our repair business continued to grow.”

Everything a Doctor Needs
From that beginning, the company has grown to become a publicly traded, multimillion-dollar international entity. It has grown into another medical device market besides retina, while still keeping its same focus on engineering creativity and developing relationships with its client base. In 2005, after merging with Valley Forge Scientific Corp. of King of Prussia, Pa., the company became known as Synergetics USA Inc.

“We’re good at bringing new products to market quickly to satisfy surgeons’ needs for emerging procedures,” Gampp says. “Our biggest strengths are new product development, along with microsurgical instrumentation manufacturing, micromachining and electrosurgical development.”

Synergetics focuses on two main sectors of the medical industry, ophthalmology and neurosurgery. The company’s oph­thalmology products include:

• Light sources and illumination
• Lasers and laser delivery probes
• Instrumentation such as micro forceps and scissors
• Lenses and viewing systems

The company also has developed its own brand of ophthalmology products. Its I-PACK™ contains a plastic tray with “everything a doctor may need” for office eye injections. It comes sterilized, and the company says it will reduce the risk of endophthalmitis, which is an inflammation of ocular cavities caused by infection, trauma or allergic reaction. The I-Pack saves hours of ordering time, condenses and organizes inventory and minimizes preparation time.

The Tano Diamond Duster Membrane Scrapers (DDMS™) provide an atraumatic alternative to locate the edge of an eye membrane. The soft silicone tip finds and grasps the edge of the membrane and quickly presents it for the forceps to grasp it easily, the company says.

Synergetics’ top products in ophthalmology come from its One-Step™ surgical line. The company says One-Step proves its “ability to push into new frontiers of retinal surgery.” The company continues to expand the line of products and works closely with surgeons to maximize performance and improve patient recovery time. Synergetics produces a suture­less cannula system, which it says improves wound architecture with razor technology on the cutting blade. It says the beveled blade allows surgeons an ease of entry and reduces leaking.

Synergetics also offers a One-Step light pipe, laser probe and forceps to give surgeons the ability to be less invasive in the eye. It says its One-Step chandeliers are good for any type of retinal surgery, and because of the unique barbell de­sign, the chandeliers instantly give surgeons panoramic illumination.

Innovating Neurosurgery
Although Synergetics’ product lines for neurosurgery are fewer than for ophthalmology, Gampp says the line still provides quality products. “Basically, we took the design of retina instruments and sized them appropriately for use in neuro procedures because we didn’t need the micro size that is used in the eye,” Gampp explains. The company decided to focus on producing devices specifically for intercranial use, he notes.

The best-selling product for Synergetics’ neurosurgery line is its OMNI® ultrasonic surgical system. The company says the OMNI is “the most innovative and user-friendly ultrasonic aspirator available.” It adds that it has the capabilities of soft tissue surgery, as well as the ability to handle dense, fibrotic lesions. It also can cut through bone, which reduces the need for drills giving the surgeon a safer alternative for re­moving bone inside the cranium.

A Japanese medical device manufacturer – Mutoh Co. Ltd. – originally developed the technology behind the OMNI, and Synergetics began a relationship with the company in 1998 to bring the ultrasonic surgical system to the United States. Synergetics updated the de­vice by developing the capabilities to make the ultrasonic tips disposable. “This be­came a very popular product because prior to this technology all neurosurgeons had were drills to cut,” Gampp states. “This gave surgeons more safety than they ever had prior to this and all­owed them to get into places that they couldn’t get access into with high-speed drills.”

OMNI Features
The features of the OMNI include:

• Reciprocating torsional motion that emulsifies bone without spooling of tissue, sutures and patties;
• Fine, non-rotational bone dissection, which does not harm soft tissue;
• No torque or skipping;
• Minimal heat generation;
• Simultaneous irrigation and aspiration with no external cooling;
• Lightweight ergonomic-design handpieces with a thin, flexible cord;
• Fast and easy set-up with a smart console that recognizes handpieces for surgical changes;
• Multiple frequencies of handpieces that allow tissue selectivity for in situ evacuation in tender areas or aggressive removal of fine bone;
• Configurable to cut dense, fibrotic and calcified lesions; and
• Choice of tips for different applications with frangible irrigation/infusion sleeves for improved visualization.

Moving forward
In November, Synergetics entered into an ag­reement with Kalamazoo, Mich.-bas­ed Stryker Corp. in conjunction with the planned acquisition by Stryker of cer­tain assets from Mutoh Co. Ltd. and its affiliated companies used to produce the Omni ult­ra­sonic aspirator control consoles and handpieces.

Synergetics will sell to Stryker certain assets associated with the marketing and sales of the Mutoh console and hand pro­ducts, supply disposable ultrasonic ins­trument tips and certain other consumable products used in conjunction with the Sonopet/OMNI ultrasonic aspirator console and handpieces, and pursue certain development projects for new products associated with Stryker’s in­tra­op­erative ultrasound products. Syn­er­ge­tics reports that the closings of the trans­actions are subject to certain agreed conditions, which all parties are working out.

Gampp says the company’s goal is to be a nimble, innovative player in the medical device mar­ket and continue to answer surgeons’ needs. “We want to continue to work on technology advances to create value for the customer, ultimately improving quality of healthcare,” he asserts.