A joint replacement can run for hours, and for the surgeon at the table, the helmet they wear for all of it matters as much as any instrument in their hand. Heavy headgear drags on the neck, fogs the view and turns a long operation into an endurance test. A Bengaluru company decided the surgeon’s helmet deserved the same engineering care as the implant going into the patient — and built one that weighs less, costs less and lets surgeons see more.
The company is Prodancy Pvt. Ltd., founded by Pradeep Vamana and Venkatesh Parthasarathy, and its flagship product is the Vizbl surgical helmet, designed for joint replacement surgery. Launched in early 2023, Vizbl is made in India for the surgeons who spend their working lives inside operating theatres, and it is now used in more than 160 hospitals, with the company’s site counting 585 helmets sold and 45,000 surgeries performed with the system.
Here is what makes Vizbl different. The company calls it the world’s lightest surgical helmet, at just 350 grams according to its product brochure, and says it costs 50% less than competing systems. The headline design choice is the one surgeons notice first: there is no chin-bar. By removing it and using a patented visor fixation method, Vizbl opens up a 180-degree viewing angle, so peripheral vision stays wide and the surgeon never feels boxed in by their own headgear.
Comfort is engineered into every other part of the helmet too. Ultra-low-noise fans with a three-step adjustment deliver airflow of 180, 360 or 540 litres per minute, keeping the surgeon cool through the longest bilateral procedures. The ergonomic design keeps the helmet’s natural centre of gravity, with a two-way headband that holds it firm and balanced. One surgeon quoted on the company’s site, Dr Sanjay Londhe of Criticare, Mumbai, says he stayed comfortable with the weight and airflow even after a three-hour bilateral surgery.
Vizbl is also designed to be easy for hospitals to run. Instead of expensive custom batteries and charging bays, it is powered by an ordinary power bank included in the box, delivering up to 13 hours of continuous operation on a single charge — comfortably more than a full day of surgery. The Vizbl surgical hood meets AAMI Level 3 protection standards, protecting surgeon and patient alike. And the helmet comes in two configurations: one with an integrated surgical light, and a streamlined light-free version, both with the same comfort and protection.
The idea has travelled well beyond Bengaluru. Prodancy is supported by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), and in November 2024 it raised Rs 2.14 crore in a round co-led by Campus Angels Network and Keiretsu Forum Chennai to grow in India and prepare for global markets. In September 2026, Prodancy was named one of three winners of HealthSprint 2026, the India-Israel healthcare innovation programme, earning a fully funded week-long immersion in Israel to explore clinical validation, partnerships and international expansion.
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What makes the Vizbl story shine is how practical its ambition is. It does not ask hospitals to buy into a futuristic vision — it takes a piece of equipment surgeons wear every single day, makes it lighter on the neck, wider on the eyes, cooler on the skin and kinder on the budget, and puts it within reach of far more operating theatres. For a country performing more joint replacements every year, a made-in-India helmet that lets surgeons do their best work for longer is a quiet revolution, worn one surgery at a time.
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