Slashdot Mirror
New "Endoscope On a Pill"
ScienceDaily is reporting that a new form of endoscope developed at the University of Washington is more like swallowing a pill than the typical "massive" cable. The pill, complete with a 1.4 mm wide tether, contains a single optical fiber for illumination and six fibers for collecting light. "Once swallowed, an electric current flowing through the UW endoscope causes the fiber to bounce back and forth so that its lone electronic eye sees the whole scene, one pixel at a time. At the same time the fiber spins and its tip projects red, green and blue laser light. The image processing then combines all this information to create a two-dimensional color picture."
It's like a party in your stomach!
I'd probably freak out a bit if I felt this "bouncing back and forth" inside my throat or stomach. I prefer to swallow inanimate objects, thank you; I may be a geek, but I don't go for goldfish swallowing.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
is more like swallowing a pill than the typical "massive" cable.
Goatse guy went through all that for nothing.
If they shape this pill like the Magic School Bus I'm down for a colonoscopy anytime
I distinctly remember seeing a story about something like this on the Canadian TV show Daily Planet over a year ago. Our host, Jay Ingram, demonstrated it by actually swallowing the pill, and they showed the video on national TV.
I'd post the link, but this doesn't exactly sound like new stuff and I'm at work so I can't do the research. This was back when he was still co-hosting with Natasha Stilwell, which places it between 2004-2006. She's been replaced in the 2006-2007 season.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
Right now, an endoscope requires a general anesthesia, which requires the patient to be monitored for adverse reactions, as well as accompaniment since the patient won't be able/allowed to drive home afterward.
My mom just had one done a few days ago, and she lives alone. The clinic performing it usually has a shuttle to pick up and drop off patients, but it wasn't available that day. She offered to take a cab, but they wouldn't allow it, stating that whoever is picking her up and dropping her off would have to stay there. Luckily, a neighbor was willing to help. (I live a few states away, for those wondering why I wasn't helping her.)
If he wasn't able to help her, she'd have had to reschedule, which would have meant rearranging her work schedule and possibly losing pay if she can't arrange the time off on short notice. If she could have driven herself there and back, she could have scheduled it around work, instead of the other way around.
I wonder how many people aren't able to have procedures like this done because they don't have the time/resources.
I'm sorry sir, it appears you have swallowed a map.
Putting moderation advice in your
I had a really bad hemorriod. I mean it was BAD. My then-wife finally talked me into taking it to the doctor. He scheduled a visit to a local hospital for an endoscopy, as he worried that the anal bleeding was from cancer.
Well, to make a short story even shorter, the lady doctor he sent me to shoved a big (compared to today) TV camera up my ass. I didn't like it a bit; I'd never had anything up there but shit before. She told me I had the most beautiful colin she'd seen (flattery will get you nowhere in that situation, lady).
So I went to see a proctologist. The office was dingy, and suggested dirtiness. The heavily accented doctor didn't inspire confidence, telling me I had the worst hemmoroid he'd ever seen. Not exactly what you want to hear from a doctor. "Has anyone ever died from a hemmoroid?" I asked. "No, not that I'm aware of" he said. "Has anyone ever died from hemmoroid surgery?" I asked. "Well," he answered, "there are always risks to any surgery".
I suffered with my hemmoroid for another fifteen years after that, and finally let a different doctor (a very pretty lady too) cut me a new asshole about five years ago. I think I journaled it in the old Paxil Diaries, I'm not sure. While I was unconscience they did another endoscope, most likely with a much smaller camera.
I was supposed to go back for another endoscopy last year. Guess what? I'd rather have colin cancer than have that damned TV camera shoved up my ass again!
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
In that you only need a trained clinician (say even a nurse) with training in the procedure, and could use this in any office, thus allowing screening in small towns as part of a visiting nurse program for screening, which would even further reduce the cost from the current device limitations that require anesthesia to use (which always has a risk).
Besides, say it got lost, the small filament size (1.4 mm) would allow it to exit through the digestive tract and be recollected.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Where you from they call it endo? It's 'Indo,' foo! Either for 'indoor' i.e. hydroponic, or for indica. Kids these days... Although I suppose you could get blunt trauma from screwing up an endo (front-wheelie).
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I've had 4+ Hemorrhoid operations myself.
I had 3 were they just slit the thing when it sticks out and goes hard, purple and painful.
They used Local anesthetic for the operation with me awake and gave me pain killers (Tylenol 3) for 3-4 days.
Going to the bathroom for a #2 was not fast or pleasant for the 20 years I had them until I got them banded.
Now I feel like I got a new one and I make sure I get my fiber!!
FYI: When nothing sticks out they call them polyps.(they can get banded too!)
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration