Due to increased frequency of laparoscopic and endoscopic surgeries, along with the challenges of the managed care environment, hospital administrators are being forced to focus on the demand for a more cost effective way to provide laparoscopic and endoscopic cases. In the early stages of the procedures, the equipment was difficult and inefficient in use. The instruments required came from a variety of companies and quality varied from each manufacturer. One broken instrument meant the whole set was unusable with possible repairs taking months.
Today, equipment has become more abundant, but the cost and complexity of maintaining instrumentation continues to be a persistent problem with hospital staff. Instrument performance, sterility and processing also create concerns when trying to assemble a quality reusable instrument program. Repairs can be expensive and new technology can render many instruments sets obsolete shortly after they are purchased.
Thus the high acquisition cost and associated maintenance difficulties with reusable instruments led to the increased development and use of disposable instruments. Though disposables virtually eliminate the need for maintenance, the quality and precision fall short of the reusable. Disposables are more expensive to use, create more biohazardous non-biodegradable waste and many disposable instruments require high volume purchases that create inventory concerns for management. In spite of these objections disposable instrumentation continues to represent a large percentage of the instruments used by physicians
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