A surgical probe that can move like a worm could improve the success rate of keyhole heart operations.
The probe bends and rotates in all directions, allowing surgeons to more precisely target areas of the heart that need repair.
This could improve the effectiveness of the procedures and reduce the risk of patients needing additional surgery. Around 25,000 NHS patients a year undergo surgery to repair heart defects such as a defective mitral valve, one of the most common operations.
The mitral valve is a one-way valve that controls blood flow within the heart. However, if it is damaged (as a result of aging or a previous heart attack, for example), the valve becomes flexible. This means that blood that should be carrying vital oxygen throughout the body builds up inside the heart, causing shortness of breath and palpitations.
If left untreated, it can lead to heart failure, where the heart becomes too weak to pump blood throughout the body.
Around 25,000 NHS patients a year undergo surgery to repair heart defects such as a defective mitral valve, one of the most common operations (File image)
Surgery to repair damaged valves or replace them with artificial valves often involves an open-heart procedure, in which the chest is opened to access the heart (file image)
Surgery to repair damaged valves or replace them with artificial valves often involves an open-heart procedure, in which the chest is opened to access the heart. However, in recent years more and more operations have been performed using minimally invasive techniques.
This is where surgeons reach the heart using thin tubes, fed through a tube called a catheter, through small holes in the side of the patient’s chest, or inserted into a large blood vessel in the thigh and then fed to the heart. .
The tubes typically have a camera on the end and surgical tools to cut or burn tissue to tighten the valve or replace it with a new one (usually made from pig tissue). However, most surgical tubes are semi-rigid and are not easy to maneuver once inside the heart.
Surgeons, using X-ray images to guide them, have to repeatedly twist and turn what could be several meters of blood vessels, to place the tip in the right place before treatment can even begin.
Some experts compare it to trying to control one end of a noodle while holding it on the other. This means that the surgery is more difficult and takes longer and often must be repeated.
The new probe, developed at Boston University in the US, has three channels inside filled with a water-based gel, meaning the probe can be easily bent without cracking. It has a hole in the middle to allow surgical instruments to be inserted into the heart. Surgeons control the movement of the probe with a telephone.
It also comes with an expandable metal cage that “locks” the probe at the entrance to the heart. This anchors it and provides stability as it maneuvers within the heart.
In tests, surgeons were able to operate, with a high degree of precision, on damage to the main blood vessels around the pigs’ hearts while they were still beating, the journal Scientific Advances reported.
More tests on animals are expected before testing it on humans.
Thanos Athanasiou, professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, said: “This is a great research topic, but at the moment it is not clear what percentage of cardiac surgery, or what operations, could be performed with this type of technology.” . ‘