Photonic recently began supporting German 3D endoscope maker Blazejewski MEDI-TECH with its innovative light Solutions.

Especially in medical technology, trustworthy partnerships are a meaningful and common practice. They are frequently established for the development of new products, where close cooperation can help cut costs and reduce time to market. Photonic and Blazejewski MEDI-TECH, too, recently decided to combine their skills.

“Photonic is an exciting partner for us because it possesses in-depth expertise in light coupling in endoscopy camera systems and offers a broad range of LED laser modules in various brightness levels and different light qualities“, stresses CEO Reinhold Blazejewski.

In a first stage, Photonic adapted its F5000M light module exactly to customer requirements for a 2D endoscope used in spinal surgery and neurosurgical interventions. “More specifically, the latter had to be fitted together with the camera controller in the same casing, despite the limited space available. Other requirements included maintenance-free operation throughout the product‘s envisaged life cycle and as little power dissipation as possible“, says Stefan Zotter, Head of Research & Development at Photonic.

“Another specification was that the fibre optic light guides and the electrical cable had to share the same inlet tube so that the cable could be connected to the controller using a hybrid connector.“

In the future, Photonic‘s specially adapted light modules may also be used in 3D endoscopy. Although minimally invasive endoscopic interventions are daily business, they still remain a challenge for surgeons. Their field of vision is severely limited during surgery and they often struggle with orientation and navigation issues. To alleviate both, Blazejewski MEDI-TECH has developed the BMTvision® endoscope system which provides stereoscopic imaging and thus a greater sense of depth. “Stereoscopic vision is created by projecting the Images on the sensors from slightly offset angles. The control unit processes this information for Display on a 3D monitor. Polarised 3D glasses then provide surgeons with images that give them a significantly better sense of depth and make it much easier to navigate“, explains Blazejewski MEDI-TECH‘s CTO Volkmar Freystein.