EXERA: Change at the press of a button

A look at innovative Swedish company
Sandvik ’s life-changing, medical, multipurpose wire

The Swedish company Sandvik are not so big in the medical world compared to their actual field which is machining and mining solutions, but their innovations are world-renowned and they are actually a world-leading company, most particularly for scalpels and bone saws and spinal fixation devices. Their largest medical sector is the production of tiny wires under the name EXERA.

The microscopic size of the wires are so small they were tested on insect brains in the past year to check the response to stimuli, which naturally makes them more than ideal for being used in medical devices implanted inside humans. One of their very first shift into medical technology was with the pacemaker leads. This caused a certain emerging interest in the company’s products shifting the company’s focus to more of a medical perspective and coming up with the name EXERA.

EXERA wires have now been developed for different usage in the medical world:

• Vascular Therapy, where the wires are used in pacemakers and catheters.
• Cochlear remediation, where they’re used to stimulate the nerves in cochlear and middle ear implants to help treat disorders.
• Sensing solutions, where they’re used in sensor applications and monitoring devices such as those for blood glucose levels for example.
• Stimulation therapy, where they’re used in neurostimulation devices such as spinal cord or deep brain stimulation, both of which have been seen to be successfully effective in managing movement disorders such as Parkinson’s or epilepsy.

The company now seems to be heading in what is a relatively new direction for them, active prosthetics. Seeing as the market is saturated with inactive prosthetics, their aim is to move in on the market to find a way to stimulate the nerves that would then lead to actual bodily movement, and from there on, it would lead to a  revolutionary change in the med-tech world and in civilization.