Peritoneoscope

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What Is A Peritoneoscope ?

A disposable, portable handheld scope with integrated camera, screen, processor, battery, and biopsy forceps to perform peritoneoscopy under local anesthesia or local anesthesia with sedation at point of care.

It has low acquisition costs. As the scope is disposable it does not require reprocessing thus saves cost, eliminates turnaround time and reduces the risk associated with cross-contamination.

WHAT IS THE NEED FOR PERITONEOSCOPY ?

01

Physicians rely on a wide variety of diagnostic imaging modalities such as Ultrasound, CT, MRI, and PET to aid in diagnosis and to monitor the progress of treatments. However, many times they fail to assist in being able to provide an exact clinical diagnosis. For example, TB of the abdomen, peritoneal secondaries, post-operative adhesions, endometriosis, abdominal cancer, etc cannot be diagnosed with these tests and require direct visualization. For direct visual examination of the peritoneal cavity, the patient has to undergo a diagnostic laparotomy or diagnostic laparoscopy under general anesthesia.

A laparotomy requires a large incision for direct visualization of the organs. Diagnostic Laparoscopy involves the examination of the peritoneal cavity and some of its contained organs using light and endoscope similar to those of a cystoscope. Access is gained using a trocar pushed through the abdominal cavity into the peritoneal cavity avoiding injuring the internal organs like the intestine and major vessels like the aorta or inferior vena cava. The peritoneal cavity is inflated using gas to create space for visualization.

These procedures are not only a major psychological burden for the patient but also expensive and have significant morbidity associated with them. Further, there is always a risk of additional complications related to anesthesia and the procedure itself like injury to internal organs during the procedure and post operative wound infection etc.

Operating rooms & laparoscopic equipment and diagnostic tools like CT, MRI & PET require significant investment, maintenance and are generally available only in major cities and secondary and tertiary hospitals.

02

The existing laparoscopic procedures are unsuitable for remote areas or where diagnostic imaging facilities and well-equipped operation rooms are not available, for example, at military field hospitals, and trauma centers, standalone Intensive Care Unit.

03

Patient who are candidates for a major surgery require adequate pre-surgery assessment and planning, without which the surgery often leads to suboptimal clinical outcomes. Currently available pre-surgical evaluation modalities such as USG, CT, MRI, PET scans often do not provide accurate clinical assessment.

04

Often post-operatively, patients develop complications like bleeding, Anastomotic leak, graft failure, etc. which are either not picked up accurately with the existing diagnostic imaging tools such as CT, MRI, or USG or the patients are too unstable hemodynamically and have to be transported to undergo diagnostic imaging tests.

05

It is fairly common for patients undergoing chemotherapy to require monitoring to access the response to the chemotherapy.

06

In addition, patients who are under critical care with ventilator support have restricted mobility and are also hemodynamically unstable. In case of certain diseases like infection or infarction of the intestine or blunt trauma to the abdomen, etc. It is impractical to Transport these patients from intensive care unit for diagnostic evaluation. patients require visual assessment of their peritoneal cavity for better disease management.

07

At present, it is not feasible to visually inspect the peritoneal cavity by the bedside. Laparotomy cannot be carried out by the bedside and laparoscopy procedures require large insufflation of CO2 and require larger and/or multiple ports for access.

08

Laparoscopy equipment is generally bulky with a large screen, requires an insufflator connected to a large CO2 cylinder, and has a bulky sophisticated video processing unit and an insufflator. Laparoscopes have to be cleaned and sterilized after every procedure and thus have a longer turnaround time and pose a risk for cross-contamination leading to infections. This makes the procedure unsuitable to be conducted under local anesthesia and the procedure needs to be carried out under general anesthesia in an operating room at a secondary or tertiary level hospital.

09

Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable hand-held Micro Peritoneoscope suitable for remote areas where an imaging facility is not available, for example, military field hospitals, trauma centers, and standalone Intensive care units.

OUR SOLUTION

Develop a disposable, portable handheld Micro Peritoneoscope with integrated camera, screen, processor, battery, and biopsy forceps to perform peritoneoscopy under local anesthesia or local anesthesia with sedation at point of care. It has low acquisition costs. As the scope is disposable it does not require reprocessing thus saves cost, eliminates turnaround time and reduces the risk associated with cross-contamination.

Micro Peritoneoscope with a small diameter which reduces pain with minimal tissue damage and enables peritoneoscopy to be performed as an outpatient procedure which is cost-effective and safer with minimal discomfort to the patient.

Provide a peritoneoscopy port which provides an opportunity for bedside sequential monitoring of intra-abdominal conditions of patients with post-operative complications or patients undergoing chemotherapy to access the response to the chemotherapy.

Provide a portable hand-held Micro Peritoneoscope suitable for remote areas where an imaging facility is not available, for example, military field hospitals, trauma centers, and standalone Intensive care units.

Provide an outpatient-based pre-planning procedure or a staging procedure in patients who are candidates for major or supra major surgery.

opportunity to perform bedside peritoneoscopy in patients who are unfit for general anesthesia because of comorbid conditions like lung infection or patients in intensive care units with ventilator support who are immobile and hemodynamically unstable because of certain diseases like, infection or infarction of intestine or blunt trauma abdomen.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a complete disposable kit that would facilitate peritoneal cavity examination at the point of care