Shifting Caseload and Markets in Tissue Ablation

by PatrickDriscoll 4 min read

Technologies to therapeutically ablate tissue (via destruction and/or removal of abnormal tissue or creation of a therapeutic lesion as in blocking errant electrical pathways in arrhythmia) represent a remarkably diverse set of tools despite their fundamentally common capability of tissue ablation.

Spanning electrical, radiation, light/laser, radiofrequency, ultrasound, cryotherapy, thermal therapy, microwave and hydromechanical and embodied in a wide range of medical devices and equipment, all ablation types simply destroy tissue. The differences lie in respect to the specificity of each modality in targeting disease tissue and in respect to their capacity to be integrated in different types of instruments that may match the demands of specific clinical practices.

The recent history of ablation technology market developments reveals that, despite the specialization of modalities to specific tissues, or the efforts by manufacturers to carve out clinician or disease-state niches for specific modalities, growth in different ablation procedure types and clinical practice patterns has changed steadily but not always predictably. Recent clinical results, new ablation device innovations and other developments have had the propensity to drive shifts in patient caseload between alternative ablation types. Given the development and manufacturing costs, have largely and unsurprisingly maintained focus in typically one modality type, seeking to provide innovations in devices and equipment that accentuate benefits for there specific modality in specific clinical applications.

Below is illustrated the worldwide market for ablation technologies in 2009 and forecast 2019.