Endoscopic suturing device for incision-less, minimally invasive tissue suturing.
- Able to be inserted into a hollow organ or body cavity, enabling incision-less tissue suturing.
- Air permeable fabric or membrane allows passage of suction or t-tag suture needle.
- Applicable to diverse surgeries.
Surgical suturing has been utilized to bind human tissues in close proximity since 3000 BC. Modern medicine is allowing many procedures to be completed with minimal invasiveness, but an internal suture, such as a gastric bypass procedure, requires the highly invasive approach of incision followed by direct suturing. The recent push towards minimally invasive procedures is driven by both the desire for improved patient prognosis and cost containment measures by hospitals. There remains a large unmet clinical need for an endoscopic suturing technology that enables incision-less suturing in various gastrointestinal procedures and less invasive applications for vascular, urological and cardiac surgeries.
Researchers at Emory University have developed an incision-less suturing device and technique. This suturing technology offers surgeons a minimally invasive approach for gastric bypass, and similar procedures, through endoscopic suturing. The device gives the ability to use natural orifices or small incisions to access internal tissues and pass suture material through the tissue for the purpose of repair, augmentation and/or graft incorporation. Surgeons are able to bring together and secure two ends or portions of tubular tissue, as well as modify the shape of these connections based on the need without cutting through the body cavity. The engineered technology allows the delivery of a suture needle in a circumferential, semi-circumferential, or linear configuration to an internal organ and subsequent suturing of the targeted location.
Prototype is being modified for specific anatomic applications.