Swallowing disorders can be debilitating, even causing nutritional deficiencies in some patients. They can also be difficult to diagnose and require the use of expensive equipment that is only found in select hospitals. Exercises can help those that are diagnosed with certain conditions, but even those exercises require the use of costly devices. Researchers at […]
Tag: GI
FDA Clears First Completely Disposable Duodenoscope
A few years ago it was discovered that duodenoscopes, which are used in Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography (ERCP) procedures, were bacterial vectors, spreading disease between patients and even causing multiple deaths. This was due to insufficient processing, so some manufacturers put out devices that are easier to clean, while others developed snap on covers to protect […]
Bacterial Hydrogel Adheres to Gut to Treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have developed a living bacterial hydrogel that can adhere to lesions in the gut wall to encourage healing and reduce inflammation. Consisting of genetically engineered bacteria that produce nanofibers that adhere to mucus, the resulting hydrogel could function as a novel probiotic therapy for inflammatory bowel disease. Approximately 1.6 million […]
PENTAX Medical’s DEC HD Partially Disposable Duodenoscope FDA Cleared
PENTAX Medical is releasing its DEC HD duodenoscope, a high-definition device that uses disposable distal caps and elevator levers, in the United States. The capability to simply throw away the components that tend to harbor bacteria, associated with the transmission of disease and even death, helps to guarantee that there’s little chance of passing pathogens […]
FDA Clears First Duodenoscope with Disposable Business End
Pentax Medical won FDA clearance for its ED34-i10T2 duodenoscope that features a disposable elevator end piece, making it easier to guarantee that the scope is properly sterilized between patients. This is the first scope of its kind, although we recently covered the clearance of ScopeSeal, a disposable device that snaps over a scope’s business end […]
Electronic Pill Popping to Detect GI Bleeds: Interview With EnteraSense
Getting a clear view of your GI tract typically involves the uncomfortable process of having a long endoscope snaked down the esophagus. Thankfully, capsule endoscopy technology is replacing many procedures that have required an endoscope. These swallow-able devices are able to withstand the harsh, acidic environment of the gut, and can provide high-resolution images, as […]
GI Genius Automatically Identifies Possible Polyps During Colonoscopy
At the UEG (United European Gastroenterology) Week event in Barcelona, Spain, the first automatic polyp assistance system was unveiled by Medtronic. The GI Genius intelligent endoscopy system monitors the live video feed from a colonoscope, outlining in real time potential signs of polyps. It certainly doesn’t diagnose anything, but serves, in Medtronic’s terms, as “an […]
GI Genius Automatically Identifies Possible Polyps During Colonoscopy
At the UEG (United European Gastroenterology) Week event in Barcelona, Spain, the first automatic polyp assistance system was unveiled by Medtronic. The GI Genius intelligent endoscopy system monitors the live video feed from a colonoscope, outlining in real time potential signs of polyps. It certainly doesn’t diagnose anything, but serves, in Medtronic’s terms, as “an […]
ScopeSeal, A Snap-on Shield to Keep Duodenoscopes Clean from Infections
ScopeSeal, an Arlington, Virginia firm, has won FDA clearance for the first duodenoscope attachment that helps to protect the imaging end from infections. Duodenoscopes are used in Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography (ERCP) procedures. A few years ago it was discovered that they are carriers of infections, because of design flaws and insufficient processing, causing multiple deaths […]
Fidmi Enteral Feeding Device Prevents Dislodgement, Lets Patients Swap Inner Tube Themselves
Fidmi Medical, a company based in Israel, won FDA clearance for its new low-profile enteral feeding device. The product is designed to help overcome many of the challenges presented by percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tubes, especially dislodgements and clogging of the inside. The Fidmi product can be delivered as the initial tube, as well as […]
Using FibroScan in The Clinic: Interview with Dr. Stephen A. Harrison
EchoSens creates non-invasive liver diagnosis medical devices. The company’s line of products, called FibroScan, work by measuring the speed of ultrasound waves as they move through liver tissue. This measurement can tell us about the state of the liver. For example, ultrasound waves move faster through fibrotic/scarred livers. EchoSens recently appointed Dominique Legros as their […]
Ethicon’s New ECHELON CIRCULAR Powered Stapler
Ethicon, a part of J&J, just unveiled the ECHELON CIRCULAR, which the company touts as the first powered circular stapler specifically designed for colorectal, gastric, and thoracic procedures. The device features so-called “Gripping Surface Technology” that is supposedly more tender on the tissues being stapled, distributing forces to reduce potential damage. Also, the staples are […]
Non-Invasive Liver Assessment: Interview with Echosens’ New CEO Dominique Legros
Echosens is a medical device company based in Paris, France that’s focused on diagnosing liver disease. Their technology, called FibroScan, uses ultrasonic waves to non-invasively measure the elasticity and absorption of the liver. These measurements can inform medical care teams about the amount of scar tissue and fatty content in a patient’s liver. The FibroScan […]
Lumendi Gets FDA Clearance for New Endolumenal Interventional Knife
Lumendi, an English firm, won FDA clearance to introduce its DiLumen Ik endolumenal interventional knife. The single-use monopolar device is used for surgical dissections, performing cuts, and cauterizing of tissues of the gastrointestinal tract. To help perform many procedures that require a section to be elevated from the surrounding tissue, the same device can be […]
NvisionVLE System FDA Cleared to Analyze Pancreas and Bile Duct
NinePoint Medical, based out of Bedford, Massachusetts, won FDA clearance for its NvisionVLE Imaging System to be used in assessing the pancreas and bile duct. The system can image tissue around a catheter tip up to 3 mm below the surface. It does so thanks to a rotating light beam emanating from the catheter as […]
Shear-Thinning Gel Makes for Easier Polyp Removals
When removing pre-cancerous polyps from the colon, physicians typically inject saline into the tissue below the polyps to raise them and make them easier to access. However, saline drains away quickly, requiring precise timing and repeat injections, among other difficulties. Now, scientists at MIT have developed an injectable material that can be used to create […]
Diagnostic Pill Samples Bacteria While Traveling Inside Gut
The microbiome inside our gut contains a wide variety of bacterial species, some of which are a source of disease. Currently, only the lower intestine can be sampled non-invasively to learn about the bacterial flora within, so there’s actually little knowledge about what goes on higher up the GI tract. Researchers at Tufts University have […]
Self-Powered Microrobots Deliver Drugs to Tumors in the Gut
Treating tumors within the GI system is often a difficult challenge, frequently requiring invasive surgery. Scientists at Caltech have now developed self-propelled microrobots that can deliver drugs to precise spots within the intestines, and that can let clinicians monitor and control their activity. Besides drug delivery, the microrobots have the potential to be used in […]
CompCyst Tool Developed to Identify Precancerous Cysts
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have developed a new computational and biomolecular tool, dubbed CompCyst, that can identify precancerous pancreatic cysts. The technology provides a new method for reliably identifying cancer-causing cysts from those that are not cancer-causing. The teams work demonstrates that in over half of patients who undergo cyst removal, the […]
Robot Navigates Tiny Ultrasound Pill Through Colon
While endoscopes give physicians a view into the interior of the GI tract, they are limited in the areas that they can reach and the imaging they can provide. Miniaturized imaging devices in the form of swallowable electronic pills have been around for a few years now. They move through the entirety of the GI […]