Dan Volz, President of Medtronic Neurovascular, discusses what’s next for Medtronic Neurovascular in an interview with SmartTRAK.

As the impact of COVID continues to decrease, things are looking up for the Spine market. 

Q121 heralded what we all hope is the rebound from the COVID-related downturn, driven by healthcare resource prioritization and the postponement of non-emergent surgeries. The WW Spine Hardware achieved robust growth, according to SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard. Although January and February were again impacted by COVID, procedure volumes improved throughout the quarter, with Alphatec* (ATEC), NuVasive* (NUVA) and SeaSpine* (SPNE) all specifically calling out an uptick around the March timeframe.

Procedures using surgical matrices continued their recovery, with breast matrices benefiting more from comparison to the early stages of the pandemic that began last year.

Procedures using surgical matrices resumed their return to pre-COVID levels. The US Surgical Matrices market returned to growth according to BioMedGPS’ SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard. AbbVie continued to lead the Surgical Matrices market while Becton Dickinson (BD), although still leading the US Hernia Matrices market, continued to slide as the hernia market lagged the recovery in breast matrices.

Among the many topics covered in detail in our comprehensive Q121 US Surgical Matrices Market Recap* are:

Inclement weather, strong product performances and the impact of M&A all help to drive another quarter of healthy growth for the Trauma Market.

The Trauma Market experienced the third sequential quarter of increasingly healthy growth as both the WW and US Trauma Markets were up YoY. New product introductions, along with inclement weather in the US and EU drove trauma procedures during the first quarter of 2021.

During the Stryker Q121 earnings call, management noted that their trauma business, which is less elective in nature, benefited from inclement weather in the US and Europe in February. 

Among the many topics covered in detail in our comprehensive Q121 Trauma Market Recap* are:

The first quarter of 2021 sees a resurgence of procedures and new product introductions as M&A activity abounds signaling that the Extremities Market is back on track.

Inclement weather, the return of elective procedures and new product introductions all contributed to growth in the WW Extremities Market, up +5.1% in Q121 and the US market seeing even higher growth. M&A activity continues to impact the Extremities segment as companies expand their portfolios and work to synergize product development and commercial efforts.

In Q420 and into Q121, COVID-19 cases ramped up in the US, impacting US Knee replacement procedures. Several large implant manufacturers reported seeing hip procedures being prioritized over knee replacement cases given their more elective nature. However, revision knee replacements are not always able to be postponed. Craig Della Valle, MD of Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush in Chicago discusses the effects of COVID-19 on revision knee procedures and the changes to care pathways precipitated by the pandemic.

To listen to the interview, recorded live via Zoom, click on the following video. A link to the transcript of the interview is also provided below.

Arthroscopic Technologies starts to pick up speed in 2021

While the COVID pandemic was still slowing parts of the overall medical device market, the Arthroscopic Technologies market was able to start to pull ahead as case volumes for Arthroscopic Sports Medicine procedures started to climb back towards pre-COVID levels.

The US market for Hemostats and Sealants resumed its growth in Q121 as procedures climbed back towards normal.

While surgical procedures have not fully regained their pre-COVID levels, the US Hemostats and Sealants market grew in Q121 according to SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard. However, it continued to be a tale of two recoveries. CryoLife* and especially JNJ/Ethicon* posted solid gains for the quarter. However, as elective procedures continue to be behind pre-COVID levels, other manufacturers lagged by comparison.

The Symposium on Advanced Wound Care, SAWC, the official meeting of the Wound Healing Society, was held virtually May 10-14 and SmartTRAK attended.

Following is a sampling of some of the takeaways from the meeting that were gathered and curated by our expert analysts and sent out to subscribers in our Daily Updates.