Many patients associate gastroscopy with unpleasant treatments using a tube inserted through the mouth and throat into the upper part of the stomach and long waiting times due to a lack of specialist staff. Together with two other partners, Fraunhofer IZM is now researching a completely tubeless technology for diagnostic gastroscopy, consisting of a swallowable camera capsule and an external magnetic control system, in the BMBF-funded nuEndo project.
Gastroscopies involve various risks and must be carried out by specialist personnel who have been trained for several years and are becoming increasingly rare. The natural gag reflex when swallowing the tube can cause injury to the mucous membranes in the oesophagus. Subsequent bleeding and the introduction of germs are not uncommon. General anesthesia, which is often performed at the same time, also carries various risks, including death.
Medical technology of the future: such an examination is much more comfortable for patients and specialist staffIn order toreduce these risks, the partners in the nuEndo project are working on a capsule that will replace diagnostic gastroscopy with flexible endoscopes with a completely wireless procedure. The endoscopy capsule can be intuitively guided through the stomach using an external magnetic guide system and transmits a real-time image of the inside of the stomach to a monitor via built-in sensors.A special addition to the examination method: unlike tube-guided gastroscopy, capsule endoscopy can be performed by specialist GPs without anesthesia. Once the patient has swallowed the capsule, it takes around 20 seconds for it to reach the stomach and the examination can begin. For some diseases, it is still necessary to carry out a tube endoscopic examination afterwards, as this provides higher-resolution images. With capsule endoscopy, however, initial diagnoses can be made without long waiting times. The need for a further examination can then be derived from this initial diagnosis.
As an expert in the miniaturization of electronic systems, the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM is responsible for the miniaturization of the capsule. The joint coordinator of the project is Ovesco Endoscopy AG. Another partner is Sensodrive GmbH - a spin-off from the German Aerospace Center, which is responsible for the external magnetic control. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with almost Ä 1.7 million as an SME-innovative research project and will run until 2022.
Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM, www.izm.fraunhofer.de
