Federal regulators have posted two recalls covering 19 specialized operating room tables after the manufacturer determined that a component failure can leave a table unable to move properly between locked and unlocked states, creating a risk that it could rotate while a patient is on it during a procedure.
The number of tables is small. The setting is not. These are tables used in hybrid neurosurgical suites where the operating table rotates to move a patient between the surgical position and an MRI scanner, often mid-operation while the skull is open. Unintended movement in that setting is a different category of hazard than a device that simply stops working.
