ERBLAN Surgical, Inc. to Present at Medtech Insight's ''Investment in Innovation'' In3 Conference.

BELMONT, Mass. -- ERBLAN Surgical, Inc. Will Be Presenting on Feb. 10 at Medtech Insight's Prestigious "Investment in Innovation" Event, Taking Place Feb. 10-11, 2005 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine in Irvine, Calif.

ERBLAN Surgical, Inc. promotes the medical device conceptions of its founder, the prolific inventor and MIT Professor, Ernesto Blanco. Blanco began patenting medical devices in the 1980's, such as micro-staplers and accommodating intraocular lenses. However, his attention shifted to the field of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in the early 1990's. In 1992, Blanco underwent a MIS gall bladder removal. His "routine, outpatient" procedure became anything but this, after a trocar injury resulted in injuries that lead to serious complications. As he undertook a lengthy recovery process, Blanco began a study of the physics of trocar insertion and the state-of-the-art in trocar device design. The fruits of his labors have resulted in three issued US patents (US 6,497,687, US 6,716,201, US 6,719,746) and a long list of US and international patent applications. This intellectual property (IP) has granted broad protection to Blanco's revolutionary trocar blade guard mechanism and innovative gas seals. The guard mechanism has also been adapted to function at the tip of needles.

"This revolutionary yet basically simple mechanism has the potential to increase the safety of almost every trocar and needle-stick procedure performed in medicine today," said Professor Blanco. "I foresee a quantum leap in safety improvement for MIS, as well as such common procedures as amniocentesis and epidural anesthesia."

ERBLAN's principal patent attorney is James Hamilton, Esq., a partner at Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier and Neustadt (www.oblon.com). Oblon and partners is the largest and most successful patent law firm in the nation. Said Hamilton: "We committed our considerable resources into a full assessment of the worldwide IP surrounding current trocar design. The Blanco invention has been issued broad, deep, solid IP protection."

"I was originally very skeptical when I was approached to represent this invention. I have performed thousands of MIS procedures with every 'shielded' or 'bladeless' trocar on the market," said Gil Wilshire, MD, FACOG, Medical Director of Technology Catalysts International Corp. (www.technology-catalysts.com) "However, after testing the device in-hand, I was truly amazed. Its ability to penetrate tissue layers with the ease and speed of a sharp device, yet to be able to penetrate embedded potential spaces in a blunt fashion appears, at first, to be almost magical. Professor Blanco's fresh look at the physics of device tip penetration has produced a truly revolutionary design."