A record 1,700 participants from 84 countries confirmed the dimension and international importance of the European Association of Endoscopic Surgery Congress held recently in Vienna, where Hans-Christian Pruszsinsky caught up with Congress President Professor Selman Uranüs, Head of the Section for Surgical Research, Medical University of Graz, for our interview.
A few years ago the American forces succeeded in dramatically lowering the mortality of soldiers from gunshot wounds with the help of a new, haemostatic powder. These silicate crystals, which attach to a wound, not only stem external bleeding but also internal bleeding resulting from stomach or duodenal ulcers, tumours or rare types of vascular deformities.
The future will be aesthetic or, put another way, Art meets Science. With this motto, the 43rd Congress of the German Society for Endoscopy and Imaging Procedures e.V., jointly held in Munich with six other specialist associations, demonstrated that aesthetic means the brilliance of images generated by the latest generation of X-ray, CT, MRI and ultrasound equipment.
Colon cancer remains the second most common cause of cancer-related death in the Western world with 450,000 citizens in Europe newly diagnosed and 230,000 deaths annually (Source: Globalscan 2008).
Forty years ago an article was published that would change medical practice. In the British Journal of Radiology, English electrical engineer Godfrey N Hounsfield described how he had made a patient’s brain visible non-invasively by evaluating a large number of X-ray images of the skull taken from different directions.
Olympus has led the field in advancing endoscopic technology. Just when experts and users thought no further optimisation was possible, Olympus placed another major innovation in the marketplace – and the firm has done it again.
Robotics and systems providing assistance during procedures harbor great potential for medical use.
Key trends in computer-assisted surgery and robotics dominated the agenda of the annual congress of the German Association for Computer- and Robotics-Assisted Surgery (CURAC), reports Michael Reiter.
For a surgeon to perform at their peak, they need the highest quality equipment. For this reason, Sony developed the PVM-2551MD 24.5” monitor.
The compact endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) processor EU-ME1 from Olympus is completely integrated.
Major developments in endoscope technology were at the top of the agenda when European Hospital editors visited the European headquarters of Olympus in Hamburg, Germany.
Major advances in Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) lead to a tremendous interest in new surgical endoscopes. The advantages of minimally invasive surgery via natural body orifices, such as the mouth, are obvious: less post-operative pain, a minor infection rate, minor incisional hernia, shorter hospitalisation and, finally, better cosmetic results. Karoline Laarmann reports
Excising the entire cancer tumour from the stomach prevents relapses. This procedure can now be performed endoscopically. Holger Zorn reports from the Visceral Medicine 2011 Congress in Leipzig.
Having secured significant contracts with hospitals in Sweden and the Netherlands, the UK-based mobile surgical services firm Vanguard Healthcare aims for further expansion in Europe. Mark Nicholls reports
CardioFocus, Inc., developer of the Endoscopic Ablation System for the transcatheter treatment of Atrial Fibrillation (AF), convened international leaders in electrophysiology to discuss the advantages of direct optical visualization to guide catheter ablation for the treatment of paroxysmal AF.
A new technique to aid the early detection and diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease has been developed by UK and Germans researchers. The Confocal Laser Endomicroscope (CLE) contains a powerful microscope that allows clinicians to view bacteria in the intestine that are thought to trigger bowel diseases such as Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.
Mechanical suturing tools are an indispensable part of modern surgery. Gastro-intestinal surgery as well as minimally invasive surgeries, would be unthinkable without this technology, a growing sub-market in an ever-growing industry, possibly driven by the patient’s benefit, writes Holger Zorn.
Endoscopy has advanced dramatically in the past decade with innovative technologies introduced by industry and novel procedures pioneered by physicians. Given a choice among the broad range of new tools, endoscopic surgeons simply want it all -- and are asking for more. During the Medica 2010 Congress, the Innovations in Endoscopy session rang with the word ‘combinations’.
Smooth, flawlessly running reprocessing systems ensure regulatory hygiene standards as well as the constant availability of all endoscopes. To this end, along with the established Partnership and Complete Coverage Contracts for endoscopy, Olympus Deutschland GmbH has developed CDS Care and CDS Care+ Contracts and a Validation Service.
Endoscopy has advanced dramatically in the past 10 years with innovative technologies introduced by industry and novel procedures pioneers by physicians. Given a choice among the broad range of new tools and techniques, endoscopic surgeons have decided they want it all. And they are asking for more.
In 2006, about 307,432 new cases of colorectal cancer arose in the European Union. The rates varied by a factor of two for women and three for men. The lowest rates were in Greece; the highest in Hungary and the Czech Republic. The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing in Europe, particularly in the south and east, where rates were originally lower than in Western Europe.
Advanced endoscopes have already transformed certain surgical procedures. Thanks to minimally invasive surgery (MIS), such as NOTES (Natural Orifice Translumental Endoscopic Surgery), even bowel resection can be relatively scar-less. Such procedures are entering gastroenterology, as presented at the 40th Congress of the German Society of Endoscopy this March.
The 3rd Central European Congress of Surgery (CECS), held alongside the 5th Croatian Congress of Surgery, drew over 300 participants to Dubrovnik at the end of April – 43 more than the previous gathering.
Segmental liver resections and ablative therapies require accurate and precise tumour localization. Because the peritoneal cavity is subject to deformations caused by respiration and topological changes in the surgical site during an intervention, the transfer of MRT and CT tumour data into an intra-operative setting remains a technical challenge.
In 2000, the Israeli firm Given Imaging introduced Video Capsule Endoscopy (VCE), a new technology initially devoted to small bowel examination. Since then, the EndoCapsule from Olympus Japan, MiroCam from IntroMedic Korea and some less advanced devices from China have been introduced as technical competition for some new areas, such as oesophagus or colon.