Image courtesy of Petal SurgicalPetal Surgical has entered the health care scene with a goal to remove the need for incisions during surgery.
On Oct. 20, the company, which was founded in 2021, announced it had raised nearly $20 million in funding, including a $10 million Series A round, to accomplish precisely that.
This funding will not only enable the company to expand its goals and technology, but also continue recruiting new talent to support its innovative surgical approach, which uses acoustic liquefaction — a form of histotripsy – artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.
Petal refers to this method as incisionless surgery, aiming to establish a new standard of care that removes cutting, pain, trauma and other common surgical risks.
“We came up with the phrase, incisionless surgery, to honor the human body’s sanctity during surgery by avoiding any physical invasion,” founder Prash Chopra told ASC News. “For the first three and a half years, we were exploring how to achieve this.”
Modern surgery still requires incisions, which cause more harm before healing begins, not to mention the access issues posed by the complexity of the surgical setup, Chopra explained.
Incisionless surgery uses ultrasound waveforms to create conditions where tiny bubbles expand and pop, breaking up tissue. The most immediate and promising clinical application is in ablative therapies, but Chopra believes this is just the start.
“Destruction of tissue is just the first step,” Chopra said. “The next few categories of applications will involve softening plaque before it hardens and causes blockages in the cardiovascular system, treating stroke or blood clots, relieving pain in the lower back and other areas, softening connective tissue and breaking up fibroids in the uterus. These are our potential uses. They are theoretically possible, but we still need to gather evidence to support them.”
Chopra said that the team challenged themselves to go beyond solving for a small part of the clinical universe and not to become “just another tool in the fragmented health care setup.”
“We fundamentally wanted to explore how surgery could be not just made less invasive but eliminated,” he said. “Make it simpler, make it more connected to the communities, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are the perfect environment for growth. It’s a natural union.”
Over the next 10 years, Chopra said he expects Petal to be naturally adopted by regional ASCs in the U.S. He believes growth will follow naturally as the company aligns well with the ASC market’s needs.
Thirty years from now, he envisions Petal creating a new category of surgical care worldwide.
“We will have sufficient evidence not only of acute tissue destruction care because of what we are building, but also that the entire industry would have shifted toward curative care,” Chopra said. “We’re excited to emerge from stealth mode and start sharing more about the innovation and human-centric approach we are bringing to the health care world. We can clearly envision a future where incisionless surgery has become the standard, accessible yet high-tech, providing patients with an option that reduces risks and complications associated with traditional surgery.”
Along with Chopra, Petal Surgical was co-founded by neurosurgeon Dr. Bowen Jiang, robotic-assisted spine surgeon Dr. Nicholas Theodore, and Rony Abovitz, a founder of Mako Surgical. The company is based in Redwood City, California.
