Enter Your Email Address to Receive a
Copy of MedicExhange Member Demograhpics

Multiple technologies that produce desired tissue destruction, excision or other tissue effects are competing with each other to drive a high volume of surgical and interventional procedures and markets, according to a new MedMarket Diligence report. Ablation is the process of producing a therapeutic affect on tissue, by its destruction, excision, sealing or simply the formation of a clinically beneficial lesion. With this broad potential, its applications span the entire clinical range in medical and surgical technology.  Moreover, its penetration of traditional surgical and interventional technologies is remarkable, given how recently several of the ablation types have been introduced, and this penetration is proceeding at a rapid pace.

The technologies that comprise ablation encompass nine distinct categories:

• Electrical
• Radiation
• Light
• Radiofrequency
• Ultrasound
• Cryotherapy
• Thermal (other than cryotherapy)
• Microwave
• Hydromechanical

Although the applications of ablation devices include a number of aesthetic treatments, the majority of applications remain chronic disorders in areas which include cancer, cardiovascular, urology, gynecology and orthopedics. Many of these disorders are age-related, and the related device segments are driven by the aging of the global populations.

The largest share of the market for energy-based ablation devices is used in cancer therapy, primarily using the radiation therapy modality. Following that is general surgery with its use of electrocautery and electrosurgical devices, RF ablation, cryotherapy, etc. Cardiovascular is third, even though cardiovascular is making the most noise in the medical press with RF and cryoablation of atrial fibrillation.  The remaining applications are relatively small and fall in line behind the three leading sectors.  (These and other dynamics are detailed in MedMarket Diligence’s global market analysis of ablation technologies.)

“From a market perspective, ablation technologies are unique among medical technologies, with starkly different technologies – such as radiofrequency, laser and radiotherapy, for example – competing with each other for clinical caseload,” says Patrick Driscoll, President of MedMarket Diligence. “And with continued development by manufacturers, progressive release of new clinical data and changing rates of adoption of the technologies by clinicians, the balance of technologies across different clinical specialties keeps changing,” says Driscoll, who notes that just as ablation technologies have preempted surgical procedures (e.g., endometrial ablation instead of hysterectomy) the different ablation technologies have abruptly gained or lost caseload share compared to one another.

The MedMarket Diligence “Ablation Technologies Worldwide Market” report is a thorough market and technology assessment and forecast of the applications, products and technologies in the ablation market for treatment of soft tissues via energy-based modalities, including electrosurgery, radiosurgery, gamma knife, brachytherapy, cryogenic therapy, fluidjet therapy (hydrotherapy), microwave ablation, radiofrequency ablation, laser, thermal ablation, and ultrasonic ablation.

The report describes alternative energy-based technologies and the nature of their effect on soft tissue, the underlying basis of the technology, the requisite systems for their use (including capital equipment, devices and disposables), and their strengths and weaknesses for specific clinical applications. The report details current and anticipated target applications and assesses the current and forecast caseload for each energy-based therapeutic considering competition from any and all alternative energy-based or other therapeutics, with current and worldwide market forecasts (2009-2019) segmented by technology type and specific clinical segment. The report provides segmentation of the worldwide ablation market by both ablation technology and region/country: Americas (USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), Europe (Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, BeNeLux), Asia/Pacific (Japan, China, India, Australia) and Rest of World. The report details the current and emerging products, technologies and markets for each energy-based therapy. The report profiles 76 key companies in this industry detailing their current products, current market position and products under development.

Source: MMD Report