On New Year's Eve, Stryker Corporation announced it had finished its $525 million all-cash purchase of medical device refurbishers Ascent Healthcare.

In late November Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Stryker announced they were picking up Ascent, a five-year-old device reprocessing outfit with facilities in Phoenix, Ariz. and Lakeland, Fla.

Stryker intends to enfold Ascent, which has contracts with over 1,800 hospitals and a slew of Group Purchasing Organizations, into its MedSurg line of business. Ascent will still operate under its own name, according to Stryker.

Stryker CEO Stephen MacMillan put a green spin on the acquisition.

"With Ascent as part of Stryker, we will also help divert thousands of pounds of medical waste from landfills while simultaneously redirecting substantial financial resources to patient care quality initiatives," MacMillan said in a statement.

Ascent, widely deemed the market leader in reprocessing, could provide another sort of green to Stryker, too. Estimates of the value of reprocessing disposable medical devices in the U.S. market reach around $1.8 billion, according to an earlier DOTmed conversation with Stryker.

The closing of the Ascent purchase winds up a year that saw Stryker busily acquiring new products. In addition to pocketing Ascent, in November Stryker dropped $103 million on joint purchases of custom knee replacement software from OtisMed and global marketing and manufacturing rights for Mutoh, Ltd. and Synergetics' ultrasonic aspirator, a surgical tool.

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