Thursday, May 24, 2007

Spyglass™ Direct Visualization System to Cure ERCP Addiction

Filed under: GI

If peaking into the bile duct is your life's calling, do we have a product for you to dream about! At the ongoing Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) meeting in Washington D.C., Boston Scientific is presenting its new easy to operate duodenoscope assisted cholangiopancreatoscopy (SODAC).

Check out these features:

SpyGlass is an innovative system that requires just one physician operator, providing unprecedented, direct visualization of all bile-duct quadrants. The SpyGlass System provides four-way steerability and dedicated irrigation channels in addition to a 1.2 mm working channel through which diagnostic and therapeutic devices can be used.

Direct visualization of the biliary system (cholangioscopy) has been possible for more than 30 years and its benefits are well documented in numerous published studies. However, the technology has not been widely adopted due to the cost and limitations of available devices. Boston Scientific designed the SpyGlass System to help GI endoscopists overcome these hurdles and to make cholangioscopy feasible for a larger number of physicians. Direct visualization with the SpyGlass System potentially offers significant procedural and clinical advantages over conventional Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).

If ERCP is insufficient to make an adequate diagnosis, or therapeutic intervention requires direct visualization into the bile ducts, the physician may choose to perform cholangiopancreatoscopy. Historically, this procedure has required two endoscopists, one to operate the therapeutic duodenoscope (mother scope) and a second to steer the cholangioscope (baby scope) and to operate its working channel. Conventional cholangiopancreatoscopy has failed to gain widespread adoption as a solution because available systems are labor intensive, and include instrumentation that is commonly viewed as fragile and difficult to manipulate.

The SpyGlass System overcomes the shortcomings of both conventional ERCP and currently available peroral cholangiopancreatoscopy systems, enabling a single physician to potentially secure a definitive diagnosis and perform therapeutic intervention in one procedure. The SpyGlass System utilizes a miniature 6,000-pixel fiber-optic probe that attaches to a camera head. The probe is inserted through a single-use access and delivery catheter that can be steered in four directions to access and inspect the treatment area. The System attaches directly to a standard duodenoscope, eliminating the need for a second physician operator.

Press release: Boston Scientific Announces Worldwide Launch Of Spyglass™ Direct Visualization System ...

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