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Healthcare Professionals

Urchin

Heart Positioners

  • Medtronic Urchin and Urchin EVO Heart Positioners

Urchin Heart Positioners

Two heart positioners to meet your stability needs during beating heart surgery.

Summary

Urchin Evo Heart Positioner – Greater Control During Beating Heart Surgery

Medtronic has taken the proven stabilizer clamp technology from our Octopus® Evolution Tissue Stabilizer and applied it to our new and improved, next-generation Urchin® Evo Heart Positioners.

Key benefits of this new design include:

  • Improved clamp design provides increased stability of the positioner on the retractor
  • Clamp can be applied to the retractor with a singlehanded technique allowing for ease of setup
  • Same clamp on the positioner and stabilizer provides a consistent system for beating heart surgery

The positioner continues to feature increased flexibility, range of motion, and a longer reach of the articulating arm for ease in accessing vessels.

The Urchin Evo heart positioner provides immediate tissue capture to the apex of the heart, effective positioning, and enhanced visualization of the anastomotic sites.

Urchin Heart Positioner

The Urchin Heart Positioner offers the following features:

  • The simple design of the positioner cup provides immediate tissue capture to the apex of the heart to provide enhanced visualization of the anastomotic sites.
  • Smaller, color-coded whale tail provides minimal obstruction.
  • High-flow flexible tubing allows easier positioning after attachment to the heart.
  • New swivel headlink greatly increases positioning options; maintains more natural bellows position.
  • Silicone suction apparatus provides immediate tissue capture. Utilizes -250 mm Hg.
  • Innovative turret design increases effective arm reach, dramatically increasing positioning options with 360-degree movement.

The Urchin heart positioner provides excellent access to target coronaries while minimizing hemodynamic instability:

  • Provides enhanced access to lateral wall with "off-apex" position
  • Optimizes performance of tissue stabilizer
  • Minimizes hemodynamic deterioration associated with beating heart manipulation when compared to deep pericardial sutures1
  • Offers flexible, low profile mounting options with turret design

Important Safety Information

Not all patients are candidates for beating heart procedures. Some patients would require cardiopulmonary support during surgery.

References

1

Gründeman P, et al. Ninety degrees anterior cardiac displacement in off-pump CABG: the Starfish® cardiac positioner preserves stroke volume and arterial pressure. Presented at ISMICS 2002.