Centerline Biomedical, a company based in Cleveland, Ohio, landed FDA clearance for its Intra-Operative Positioning System (IOPS). The product provides physicians with a radiation-free way to navigate through vasculature during minimally invasive procedures.
Currently, X-ray fluoroscopy is used to track where minimally invasive instruments are in a patient’s body. Danger results from ionizing radiation, but also from the low-resolution 2D grayscale images that clinicians have to work with. These can make it challenging to understand the location and position of instruments, often leading to long procedures, difficulty completing them, or outright disasters.
Clinicians using the IOPS system, the technology behind which was originally developed at Cleveland Clinic’s Heart and Vascular Institute, start with a CT scan of the patient. This is used by the system’s mapping algorithms to create a digital model of the relevant vasculature. An electromagnetic tracking system is attached to the operating table, and a tracking pad is stuck to the patient. The two work together to identify the exact position of the patient, allowing the system to know where inside the patient a catheter or guidewire is.
Clinicians get to use 3D rendered, color images of the patient anatomy and to track their tools as they move through the vessels. Reportedly, understanding what’s going on during a procedure, something that can require a good deal of mental interpretation, is easier and quicker with the IOPs than with current methods.
The result is radiation-free navigation while looking at an attractive, intuitive, and live visualization of the patient anatomy and all the tools within.
Here’s a glance at the technology:
Product page: Intra-Operative Positioning System (IOPS)
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