Mednosbro GmbH Signet Surgical hands that work tirelessly
Swiss Quality Label

History

An idea based on practical experience

The establishment of Mednosbro resulted from practical experience gained during surgery:

Bern surgeon Dr Jaroslav Dbaly was annoyed by the lack of ability to use a retractor during an operation without it applying pressure on tissue. He believed that the issue could potentially be resolved by a special retractor holder. Hans Meier took up the idea and developed the Octopus automatic retractor holder, which he patented in 1979. And so, Mednosbro GmbH based in Mellingen/Switzerland was born. After years of successfully managing the company, Romy Scheidegger deservedly retired in 2017. The new Managing Director, Claudio Keller, has manufactured the instruments himself for over ten years and is therefore fully familiar with our products.

Constant development:

“What we do, we do well. We refrain from everything else.” The recipe for success established by company founder Hans Meier was clear: focus, don’t diversify. Improve, don’t dilute. As a result, Mednosbro has focused on a single product: the Octopus retractor holder.

Today, Mednosbro is the only company in the world that exclusively develops and manufactures high-quality retractor holders. Over the past forty years, our specialists have acquired unrivalled expertise. However, the Octopus system was not just quietly developed and improved in the Mednosbro research laboratory. This primarily happened elsewhere, in the field. Thanks to close cooperation with surgeons, hospitals and transplant centres, we have been able to continually refine our product and align it even more closely to surgeons’ needs. For example, in 1989, a brand-new central joint was launched as the result of four years of development work. A further brilliant innovation in the same year was the universal base, which can be attached to the rail on any operating table. Wherever in the world an operating table is, the universal base is compatible with it.

A systematic approach to safe operations:

In the course of the development work, the Octopus system was expanded, with the single-arm system being joined by a double-arm one. These systems, both global market leaders, are also complemented by a growing number of accessories. For example, we now produce special holders for procedures such as laparoscopies as well as special instruments for operations such as liver transplants. Following the death of the company founder, Mednosbro was taken over by Romy Meier in 1993. She too continued to focus on top quality, as is evident by the certified quality system that the company established in the mid-nineties, among other factors. The quality of our customer service is also right up there with that of our products.