Surgeons have successfully used TransEnterix's Single Port Instrument Delivery Extended Reach (SPIDER), a single-port laparoscopic platform, in first-in-man surgeries in Paraguay, according to a statement released by the company.

The doctors used the system to remove gallbladders from seven Paraguayans previously indicated for the procedure.

Laparoscopic surgeries, also known as minimally invasive surgeries, are abdominal surgeries performed using only small incisions around the abdomen. Through these tiny openings, surgeons insert the tools they need to cut and remove tissue inside the body. The surgeons can see what they're doing thanks to images sent back from the laparoscope, a long, thin tube with a lens on the tip, which usually enters through the navel.

"While it's a very safe procedure," Karen Stinneford, a spokeswoman for TransEnterix, tells DOTmed Business News, "you're still causing a small injury to do the surgery."

According to TransEnterix, the SPIDER System only requires one small incision in the navel, as it is a true "single-port" device -- that is, it carries all the tools needed for the operation on one port, or instrument. "All the tools go through the center platform that goes through the belly button," Stinneford says. "The result is, the patient comes out of the surgery getting what he needs done, and the only opening is the belly button, which is a natural opening, anyway," she says.

Results from the surgery suggest that operations using SPIDER take the same amount of time as conventional surgeries, but might offer faster recovery times and less pain for the patients, according to TransEnterix.

"Laparoscopic surgery hasn't had any real advances since the 1990s," Stinneford says. The SPIDER system "[takes] it to the next step, in terms of laparoscopic techniques."

With successful first-in-man trials completed, TransEnterix plans to roll out SPIDER Systems next year.

For more information on SPIDER Systems, visit: www.truesingleport.com

Source: TransEnterix

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