Skinny scope set to transform surgery
19 October 2006
Scientists have developed a new super-skinny probe they say will revolutionise how surgeons do operations. The slender endoscope is as thin as a human hair and could let doctors delve deeper into our insides than ever before.
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This story was published in Nature on 19 October 2006.
The new type of endoscope (top) is about the same thickness as a human hair (bottom).
Image: Gary Tearney and Dvir Yelin
Endoscopes are an essential piece of kit in modern hospitals, helping surgeons look inside patients' bodies without cutting them open. By shining light down a bundle of very thin tubes called optical fibres, endoscopes give doctors a snapshot of our squishy bits.
Optical fibres are usually made of glass or plastic.
This 'gastroscope' was used to take pictures of a patient's stomach, to help spot things like ulcers or cancer.
Image: SSPL
Doctors use endoscopes to spot problems all over the body, such as up your nose or down in your stomach or intestines. The scopes can also help surgeons carry out 'keyhole' operations. But there are still places they can't go, and things they can't do. |
'Miniature endoscopy is an important field, but the technology isn't quite there,' says Gary Tearney, an endoscope expert from Harvard Medical School in the US. 'We've now invented a new type of scope that's nearly the size of a human hair, and it's much more flexible.'
Gary Tearney, Harvard Medical School
Image: Gary Tearney and Dvir Yelin
Image: Gary Tearney and Dvir Yelin
Tearney and his team have built an endoscope that uses a single optical fibre, not a whole bundle. Shining light down just one fibre wouldn't normally produce a great image, but the new endoscope gets round this problem by splitting the light up into different colours, a bit like a rainbow. |
'We project different colours onto different locations inside the subject. We then measure these colours outside the body, and it tells us how much light is being reflected from the different locations. We can use this information to create a high-quality image,' says Tearney.
As well as better picture quality, the new endoscope can produce 3D images for the first time. Tearney says it could open up a world of possibilities for doctors and surgeons: 'It could permit diagnosis and microsurgery in previously inaccessible areas of the body,' he says.
Tearney and his team tested the new scope on a mouse with ovarian cancer - the image clearly shows lumps of tumour.
Image: Gary Tearney and Dvir Yelin
The endoscope is so slim that it can be injected into the body using a needle, and it won't cause any significant tissue damage. It could even be used to spy safely on a fetus as it grows in the womb.
Other experts agree that the skinny scope has got great potential. 'This may be an exciting development that's come along at just the right time,' says Michael McMahon, endoscope expert and President of the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.
'Endoscopes are now used for treatment as well as diagnosis, and if you can reduce the size of the optical fibres, you've got more room in the scope for other surgical tools. You could even potentially have an "eye" in the end of each instrument.'
Michael McMahon, President of the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland