Advanced endoscopy device commissioned

At Dr. G. Viswanathan Speciality Hospital

An advanced endoscopy device that will help improve treatment of obstructive or surgical jaundice was commissioned at Dr. G. Viswanathan Speciality Hospital in the city on Friday.

The SpyGlass Laser Endoscopy DS (Digital Simple), inaugurated on the hospital’s Babu Road premises, is considered to be the latest aid in minimally invasive surgery to detect and treat gallstones, strictures and cancers that obstruct the common bile duct and cause surgical jaundice.

Albert D. Manohar, Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, Tiruchi, commissioned the equipment in the presence of Zameer Pasha, president, Indian Association of Gastrointestinal Endo Surgeons (IAGES) and K. Govindaraj, Director, Dr. G. Viswanathan Speciality Hospitals.

In 1997, Dr. G. Viswanathan Hospital pioneered the Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio Pancreatogram (ERCP) – a virtual procedure where the common bile duct is visualised with X-ray imaging – in Tiruchi.

The direct visualisation system is also known as the ‘mother-baby scope’ concept.

SpyGlass uses a smaller scope that goes through a larger scope directly into the bile pathway (normally less than a centimeter in diameter).

The direct visualisation of the obstruction, whether a gallstone or cancer, helps to speed up treatment and reduce the failure-rate of ERCP.

An ancillary instrument, called Spybite, takes targeted biopsies of the growths. Gallstones which are difficult to break down with a regular mechanical lithotripter, are destroyed with the holmium laser used in SpyGlass.

“We expect the operation cost to come down to at least Rs. 1.5 lakh from the current price of Rs. 3 lakh with the new equipment,” said Dr. Govindaraj, who will be performing surgical procedures with his team using SpyGlass at the hospital.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/advanced-endoscopy-device-commissioned-at-hospital/article19431465.ece