Every Monday I share a startup that I really like. I call it the Red-Hot Innovator of the Week.
As you know, I like new technology that take friction out of the case — especially no incision, no implant, no hardware left behind. Business model still matters. So does whether the energy actually does what the deck says.
It’s time to think about tissue removal without opening the patient.
Enter Petal Surgical (petalsurgical.com). This startup aims to liquefy tissue with sound. No cut. No retractor. No hardware.
Petal Surgical [ https://www.petalsurgical.com/ ], is not a cleared spine device, and it is not selling a same-day disc procedure. Based in Redwood City, the company came out of stealth in October 2025 with an incisionless platform built on acoustic liquefaction — a proprietary form of histotripsy it calls Millisecond Pulse Histotripsy — combined with robotics and AI.
A year later, the device is still investigational. The company has said it is finishing controlled in-vivo work and moving toward first-in-human studies. Not years away, and not next week.
Imagine a herniated disc treated without a cut. No retractor, no annulotomy, no hardware. Focused sound liquefies the offen...
