Ingestible Medical Robots Could Remove Batteries From Stomachs (washingtonpost.com)

"A child swallows a battery every 3 hours," reports a new article in the Washington Post. But now, gurps_npc writes: MIT has developed a small ingestible robot to remove watch batteries that kids swallow. It starts out folded up tight and surrounded by an ice sheath. You swallow it, the ice melts, and it unfolds. Then a doctor uses magnets to direct it to the battery, it wraps itself around the battery, preventing it from leaking acid until you pass it — perhaps a bit faster with the doctor using the magnets to guide it down through your system.
Interestingly, the MIT researchers built their proof-of-concept robot using a durable pork casing -- "the same stuff you might find surrounding a hot dog or kielbasa."

Comments

There was an old lady that swallowed a fly

[hughbar]

You know how this ends. The little robot swallows the battery but gets a bit lost. Then another robot-seeking-swallowing-robot is prescribed. Then...

Re:There was an old lady that swallowed a fly

[ShanghaiBill]

The way this little robot is folded and then frozen in ice, reminds me of how the Inuit used to kill polar bears. They would take a long sliver of bone, sharpened on each end, bend it into a "U" shape, and freeze it in blubber. Then they would leave it on the ice pack where a bear would find it, and swallow it. The blubber would thaw in the bears stomach, the bone would straight out and puncture the stomach. The bear would die of internal bleeding.

How fast is this?

[PPH]

Steering little pouches around with external magnets while irradiating some poor kid with X-rays (so you can steer the 'robot') sounds time consuming. How does this compare (both in time and cost) with using a GI endoscope? Or just shoving a funnel and some syrup of ipecac down the kid's throat and having him vomit the battery back up?

This sounds like an interesting but very special purpose procedure and equipment. Better care might be had using commonly available tools.

Re:How fast is this?

[Cow Jones]

That's a very good question. An endoscope would have been my first thought as well. I'm not an expert, so I was wondering if the smaller esophagus of the infants who typically swallow batteries would make this more dangerous, but apparently that's not a problem.

A gastroscopy can be performed on short notice at most hospitals, and doesn't even require the lengthy preparation you would want for a colonoscopy. My impression is that the current system is just a proof of concept, and the full system would be more autonomous. The person in the video says the next step would be to add sensors to reduce/eliminate the need for external control.

Fun fact: apart from infants, prison inmates are regular customers for gastroscopies. They pack a razor blade in some bread, swallow it, and call a guard. Their expectation is a lengthy hospital stay after a surgery, but in reality they're back in their cells a few hours later.

Re:Durable pork casing

[myowntrueself]

My question is what happens when a little Jewish or Muslim kid swallows a battery? Pork casing indeed!

Those damned anti-Semitic folks at MIT.

Obviously the survival of their children takes priority over their religious beliefs.

Oh... wait...

"A child swallows a battery every three hours."

[hey!]

Somebody should talk to that child's parents.

Re:Personally...

[argStyopa]

I'm not really talking about the babies, it's not their fault; I'm talking about their procreators stupid enough to leave button batteries, etc where little children can get them (or leaving them unattended with electronics long enough to get the cover off and batteries out) and then leaving them unobserved long enough to eat the damn things.

No slam on curiosity; slamming on parents incapable of some basic parental functions.