Olympus Partners With Advanced Surgical Concepts

HAMBURG, Germany — Olympus has signed an exclusive and immediate deal to distribute the products of Irish company Advanced Surgical Concepts Ltd. (ASC) worldwide. ASC is the sole global provider of ports for state-of-the-art laparoscopic operative techniques via a single access point — the patient's navel. Olympus is now the exclusive distributor for the full range of products involved.

Laparoendoscopic Single-site Surgery (LESS surgery) — endoscopic surgery via the umbilicus — ranks as one of the most important recent innovations in medical technology. As distributor for the TriPorts and QuadPorts developed by ASC, Olympus is now a key player in the technology of this high-potential market. Using these ports, three or four instruments can be introduced into the patient's abdomen via a single access point (e.g. the navel). Up to now, most minimally invasive operations required three or even four separate access points.

"As the global market leader in the field of quality endoscopic systems, we will now be supplying the ports, the manual instruments and the optics for the dynamic field of minimally invasive surgery from a single source," explains Heinz Jacqui, CEO at Olympus Winter & Ibe, referring to the strategic distribution partnership. In addition to its responsibilities in the area of sales cooperation, this subsidiary company also runs Olympus' surgical development and production centre.