A surgical system console having an electronic identification system, such as a bar code scanner, magnetic reader or other sensing device (e.g., optical, magnetic or other system) system that works in conjunction with a unique identifier on the surgical pak so as to identify the contents of the pak to the surgical console control (e.g., CPU). That information can be used for a variety of further activities, such as inventory management, product usage, traceability, patient billing, collection of statistical data, OR support, automatic setting of the surgical operating parameters by the surgical console, servicing and to print out the contents of the surgical pak on a list or any other recordable media (e.g., DVD, CD-ROM, floppy disk, hard drive, ZIP drive.