Karl Storz SE & Co. KG is a German medical device company that manufactures and sells
endoscopes
An endoscopy is a procedure used in medicine to look inside the body. The endoscopy procedure uses an endoscope to examine the interior of a hollow organ or cavity of the body. Unlike many other medical imaging techniques, endoscopes are insert ...
and
surgical instruments
A surgical instrument is a tool or device for performing specific actions or carrying out desired effects during a surgery or operation, such as modifying biological tissue, or to provide access for viewing it. Over time, many different kinds of ...
. It was founded in
Tuttlingen
Tuttlingen ( Alemannic: ''Duttlinga'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the district Tuttlingen. Nendingen, ''Möhringen'' and ''Eßlingen'' are three former municipalities that belong to Tuttlingen. Tuttlingen is located in Swabia ea ...
by Dr. Karl Storz in 1945.
The company is privately owned; Storz' daughter,
Sybill, took over running the company after Storz died in 1996.
[
The company was one of the first to introduce an endoscope that delivered light using ]fiber optics
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...
, in 1963.[ It also licensed the patent for the Hopkins ]relay lens
In optics, a relay lens is a lens or a group of lenses that receives the image from the objective lens and relays it to the eyepiece. Relay lenses are found in refracting telescopes, endoscopes, and periscopes to optically manipulate the ligh ...
and introduced endoscopes including such lenses in 1965.FDA
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...
had advised that these devices should be withdrawn from the market due to the risk of spreading cancer and while Ethicon
Ethicon, Inc. is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. It was incorporated as a separate company under the Johnson & Johnson umbrella in 1949 to expand and diversify the Johnson & Johnson product line.
Ethicon has manufactured surgical sutures and ...
, the market leader, had withdrawn their devices, Karl Storz had not. In 2017, it changed its corporate form from GmbH to ''Societas Europaea
A ''societas Europaea'' (, ; "European society" or "company"; plural: ; abbr. SE) is a public company registered in accordance with the corporate law of the European Union (EU), introduced in 2004 with the Council Regulation on the Statute f ...
''.
It has a US subsidiary called Karl Storz Endoscopy-America, Inc. that was founded in 1971, and a group focused on industrial products like borescopes called Karl Storz Industrial Group.
KARL STORZ Endoscopy Canada Ltd. was established in December 1995 to offer Canadian customers even more direct support.
In 2019, Karl-Christian Storz took over the management of the operational business and his mother Sybill Storz became head of the supervisory board. In the years after 2000, Sybill Storz received a number of awards for her entrepreneurial achievements and her social commitment.
Preisträgerin 2006: Sybill Storz.
' In: ''Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation (german: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, KAS) is a German political party foundation associated with but independent of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The foundation's headquarters are located in Sank ...
'', aufgerufen am 26. April 2016.[Ludger Möllers: . In: '']Schwäbische Zeitung
''Schwäbische Zeitung'' (eng. "Swabian Times") is a daily newspaper published by Medienhaus Schwäbisch Media, Schwäbischer Verlag GmbH & Co. KG Drexler, Gessler in Ravensburg, Germany. It was first published in Leutkirch im Allgäu on Decembe ...
'' vom 10. Mai 2012
Artikelanfang
' In: ''karlstorz.com'', aufgerufen am 26. April 2016.
Company data
In addition to the headquarters in Tuttlingen, the company manufactures in seven other production facilities. More than 8,000 employees in 47 sales and marketing companies are employed worldwide, around 3,000 of them at the headquarters in Tuttlingen. Up to 150 apprentices are trained in twelve professions. The company's total turnover in 2018 was over 1.75 billion euros.
Karl Storz SE & Co. KG is a member of the Industrial Association of Baden.
References
Further reading
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External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Medical technology companies of Germany
Companies based in Baden-Württemberg