In the mid-1990s, Burnsville plastic surgeon Joe Gryskiewicz became frustrated with the tedious, slow process of sewing sutures. Dr. Gryskiewicz wondered if there might be a way to mechanize the process—to create a stapling system that would equal the speed of metal skin staplers, but would insert absorbable staples and create a smoother-looking result.
So in 2000, a group of investors, managers, and researchers formed Plymouth-based Incisive Surgical to develop Dr. Gryskiewicz’s idea. The specifics of his first product concept turned out not to be feasible, but the team quickly created a new concept with medical and commercial potential. After several rounds of testing, the INSORB® Subcuticular Skin Stapler entered the market in 2005. Since then, it has eased the recovery of more than 100,000 patients.
The stapler—made of disposable plastic that’s new and sterile for each patient—places staples under the skin, not on the surface. The staples are injection-molded from the same polymer as absorbable suture, so they break down over time and the patient doesn’t have to come back to have the stitches removed.
The new device provides substantial benefits, says John Shannon, the company’s president and CEO. For one thing, the final appearance of the suture site is improved, and fewer scar-revision procedures need to be performed. But even more importantly, it gets patients out of the operating room more quickly, making surgery less dangerous.
“Our device has been shown, clinically, to reduce infections in contaminated wounds,” Shannon says. “In addition, it eliminates the [infection] potential of a needle stick. If we can assist a hospital in reducing their infection rates, that is a big win, because those [cause] very, very expensive complications.”
The stapler gives the best return on investment when it’s used in surgeries where doctors must close an incision more than three inches long, he says. That’s because the cost of the disposable device must be amortized. But the benefits of using it are significant.
Shannon offers an example. “They say there will be about a half-million gastric bypass procedures by 2012,” he says. “Twenty-five to 40 percent of those patients will come back for revision surgery [to remove excess skin]. Those procedures can last six hours. When they use our stapler, they can save up to two hours of operative time. It reduces the risk, reduces the cost to the hospital, and thereby reduces the cost to the patient. And we’re getting very nice cosmetic results.”
Now the company is trying to spread the word.
“Our number one task right now is to present this to the marketplace and to spread it through as many surgical specialties as we can,” Shannon says. “We’re concentrating right now on plastic surgery and general and vascular surgery. [From there, we’ll start] getting into areas such as orthopedics, OB/GYN, urology, colorectal, cardiovascular, and so on. This is truly the most ubiquitous technology that I’ve personally ever dealt with.”
Though Shannon is a longtime venture capitalist with a history of startups and relaunches, he doesn’t see himself moving on anytime soon.
“There are very few times in one’s career when you can say you have the only thing of its kind in the world,” he says. “We’re having so much fun with this that I haven’t even thought about going somewhere else.”
