Inside information for endoscopy

A tiny, sensitive, ultrasound probe which gives three-dimensional images from inside the body during endoscopic surgery is ready to begin human trials.

Researchers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering in the US have used the device to image the beating hearts of dogs. The engineers said their demonstration showed that the probes could give surgeons a better view during human endoscopic surgeries, in which operations are performed through tiny "keyhole" incisions.

If the probes prove beneficial in human testing, the advance might lead to more precise and safer endoscopic surgeries, said the Duke engineers.

"Surgeons now use optical endoscopes or two-dimensional ultrasound when conducting minimally invasive surgery," said lead engineer Stephen Smith, a professor of biomedical engineering at the Pratt School.

"With our scanner, doctors could see the target lesion or a portion of an organ in a real-time three-dimensional scan," Smith said. "They would have the option of viewing the tissue in three perpendicular cross-sectional slices simultaneously or in the same way a camera would see it, except that a camera can't see through blood and tissue."