When it's time to shop for new surgical equipment, there's no place quite like the Annual Congress of the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses. It's one of the top 10 largest trade shows in terms of exhibit hall space in the United States, and it's easily the largest meeting for perioperative nurses in the country. It's also traditionally where surgical manufacturers unveil new products. Unfortunately, fewer than 7,000 nurses get to attend the show each year. So, in an effort to help those who couldn't attend, I trekked out to Southern California, notebook in hand, to find and report back on the news from the exhibit hall.

To help me narrow my task, I confined my quest to capital equipment