Hong Kong

In a rare medical feat, a doctor carried out an endoscopy on a pig in Hong Kong while sitting in a lab which was 9,300 kilometres away in Zurich, Switzerland.

Advertisment

The operation was part of the collaborative project between researchers at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and ETH Zurich. 

In the project, the researchers were able to look into the stomach of the anaesthetized animal while sitting in the other half of the world with the help of a smooth internet connection and clever robotic technology. 

Also Read: Namibia to cull over 700 elephants, hippos and other animals for meat. Here's why

Advertisment

Doctoral student Alexandre Mesot used the joysticks of a PlayStation controller to manipulate the endoscope in Hong Kong and checked the images on a screen in the lab in Zurich. There was only a 300-millisecond delay in loading of the images.

This surgery has emerged as a breakthrough in the field of telesurgery. 

Before the endoscopy, the surgeons had anaesthetized the pig in the operating room in Hong Kong and had also safely inserted the endoscope in its stomach through the mouth.

Advertisment

Here's how the doctor carried out nearly impossible endoscopy on pig

The endoscope used not any usual one but was specially developed by the ETH Zurich team for navigating with the help of a magnetic field.

“Not only can the endoscope be bent in any direction thanks to its magnetic head; it’s also smaller and easier to manoeuvre than conventional devices,” said Mesot, in his statement.

Mesot said that it was so flexible that he was able to control the endoscope from Switzerland and easily manipulate it bend its head backwards by 180° and check the stomach entrance. 

Mesot was also able to take tissue samples from the stomach wall using a tiny gripper. Since this endoscope is smaller than usual, it can be used on human patients by inserting it through their nose and not the mouth.

Watch: Lab-grown blood stem cells could replace bone marrow transplants: Report

“In the next step of our research, we hope to carry out a teleoperated endoscopy on a human stomach,” said Professor Bradley Nelson, who is from the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich while speaking to IFL Science.

“There’s a lot of potential in this technology. Here I’m thinking of minimally invasive procedures in the gastrointestinal tract, such as cancer screening," he added.

As per the reports, the pig survived the endoscopy and did not suffer because of the operation's novel nature.

(With inputs from agencies)