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O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5
Arthroscopy Imaging Consoles
They're the brains of the operation.
W
ith all due respect to the camera, shaver, irrigation pump
and HD monitor that make up the chain of arthroscopic
technology, the imaging console — the box on the tower
or cart that manages the visuals and controls other integrated tasks
— is without question the brains of the operation.
When I started out in orthopedics more than 15 years ago, you inter-
acted with the device to arrange how many photos would print out on
a page. You could input the surgeon's and patient's names, and that
was about it. Now the images, both still and video, are processed and
stored digitally. Cutting out the cost and labor of ink-and-paper photo
printing is a big advance in itself, but the ability to wirelessly transfer
captured images to your electronic health records system or to the
physician's or patient's e-mail inbox is practically the standard. Our
whole market is based on efficiency. How can you beat technology
that gives us a sharp view of the surgical site, that lets us shoot, edit
and annotate what we see there, that gives us touchscreen interfaces
and pre-programmed settings?
It's not likely that you'll purchase arthroscopy imaging consoles
independently. Rather, they'll be part of an arthroscopy system as a
whole. That's an important consideration when selecting this type of
equipment, since one way to get the biggest bang for your buck is to
negotiate a bundled deal — tower, scopes, shavers, pump, dispos-
ables, everything — with one vendor. You'll want imaging technology
that's easy to plug in and start using, and that can be controlled con-
veniently, whether that means buttons on the scope in the surgeon's
hand or fingertips on a tablet computer near the field. If space is an
issue in your ORs, some manufacturers have consolidated a cart's
worth of camera processing and light source equipment into a single,
T H I N K I N G O F B U Y I N G …
Greg DeConciliis, PA-C, CASC
