Norwegian industry is among the world leaders in medical ultrasound technology and the city of Trondheim in particular has a long tradition of fostering research and development in the field. Trondheim is home to the National Center of Competence – 3D Ultrasound in Surgery. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration that includes research scientists and surgeons from SINTEF Health Research, the Department of Neurosurgery at St. Olavs University Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). This group has received international recognition for its research on ultrasound guided surgery. One of the major results of their work has been the development of a prototype system for ultrasound guided neurosurgery.
The SonoWand Invite™
The intraoperative imaging system for neurosurgery offers high quality and precision, allowing the surgeon to optimize tumor resection through a smaller incision to the brain.
Neuronavigation systems have become very common in neurosurgery in recent years. Conventional neuronavigation use preoperative MR or CT images which might be up to several days old. They cannot fully be relied upon on the day of the surgery because "the map does not correspond with the terrain". SonoWand® enables the surgeon to easily update the map during surgery, needing only a few seconds to scan the brain with high quality 3D ultrasound.
The surgeon can then navigate instruments down to the tumor and perform image-guided surgery with a high precision of approximately 1,4 mm. Ultrasound images of similar quality as MR images facilitate the identification of small remaining tumor structures towards the end of the surgery, whereas the high precision navigation system simplifies the localization and removal of potential residual tumor tissue.
The company
SONOWAND AS was established under the name of MISON in 1998 by Aage Grønningsæter and Atle Kleven and is a spin-off company from the Center of Excellence in 3D Ultrasound. The major objective of the new firm was further development of the prototype system to the commercial product SonoWand®.
From the very beginning, MISON was known for the SonoWand® and after careful consideration we chose to change our name to SONOWAND and fully exploit the strategic market effect of our product’s well established name and reputation.
Our company employs people within the the fields of research, development, logistics, marketing and sales. In June 2008, SONOWAND moved to new locations just outside the city center of Trondheim. From our offices in Ila, we enjoy striking views of Trondheim's fjord and the idyllic and charming historic Ilsvika district.
Certification
SONOWAND was first ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certified in September 2001, and has patented the core technology behind SonoWand®.
