Device Companies, Investors See Potential in Cut-Free SurgeryDevice Companies, Investors See Potential in Cut-Free Surgery
The device industry and its backers have made lots of money off minimally invasive surgery in the past 20 years. It is no surprise, then, that there would be a lot of interest in the next frontier: incision-free surgery. The Pioneer Press of St. Paul, MN has a feature about the potential of surgical procedures that don't leave even a single scar.
May 27, 2008
They are known as NOTES, which stands for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery. Typically, they involve using the mouth, anus, or vagina as entry points into the body. Early applications are focusing on organ-removal procedures. If NOTES takes off, the procedures would likely be performed with existing endoscopic instruments that have been modified for use with natural orifices.The question yet to be answered is how much these procedures benefit patients. Minimally invasive surgical procedures caught on after years of skepticism because they produced similar or better results as conventional surgeries with much less trauma to the patient. It's not yet clear whether NOTES procedures will bring that kind of substantial improvement. But if they do, a number of companies will be ready to pounce.
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