In 1956, the first successful shunt for hydrocephalus (the “Holter valve”) was designed by John Holter, a toolmaker from Stamford, Connecticut, USA, who was trying to save his son’s life. In 1981, the company he created afterwards, the Holter company, introduced the cruciform valve as an improvement over the initial design, which received worldwide acceptance for its excellent resistance to CSF over drainage.
In 1993, Phoenix Biomedical Corp, a recently-created neurosurgical device company, acquired the industrial activity and products of the Holter Company. Phoenix Biomedical Corp continued the innovation effort, leading to the introduction of the CRx valve in 1996 and of the Diamond valve in 1999, both based on that same cruciform valve design.
The company continued to address the pediatric segment of the market and also started to treat a growing number of patients suffering from Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH), a condition affecting older people and often misdiagnosed for Alzheimer’s disease.
In addition to those membrane-based types of valves, the company also developed ball-and-spring mechanisms with the Accura and eventually the Elite ranges, which enlarged the valve offer.
In 2003, the Vygon Group acquired substantially all of the assets of Phoenix Biomedical Corp, expanding for the first time into the neurosurgery devices market. But six years later, for strategic reasons, the Vygon group decided to divest Vygon Neuro. Sophysa, European leader in hydrocephalus shunt manufacturing, saw there a unique opportunity to complete its range of products and to reach new markets and decided to buy the industrial activity and products of Vygon Neuro.
In order to identify those products specifically in the Sophysa range, a dedicated trademark is used. The previously Vygon products or Phoenix Biomedical products will be now available from Sophysa as “Phoenix Neuro” products.
Major Phoenix Neuro products include Hydrocephalus valves and a range of external drainage systems, the Fifth Ventricle System.
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