http://www.newsinferno.com/storypage...-2005~003.html
Surgeon Develops Life-Saving Technique for Liver Cancer Surgery
Date Published: December 23, 2005
Source: Newsinferno News Staff
Leading surgeon Nagy Habib has invented a device that now enables liver cancer patients to have lifesaving surgery. The
Habib Resection Device is already being regarded as a revolutionary step forward in the medical industry in the U.S.
Previously, malignant tumors in the liver were often considered inoperable because of the risk of massive blood loss. Liver cancer surgery is further complicated by the fact that, frequently, tumors must be shrunk by drug therapy before they are removed, particularly if they are in a location where bleeding will occur too quickly.
The handheld device invented by Dr. Habib checks blood loss through the use of radio waves which seal tissue quickly.
Professor Habib, head of liver services at London's Hammersmith Hospital, states: “Liver surgery can be tricky and blood loss is one of the biggest problems. The liver is naturally engorged with blood and we have to find ways of operating without losing too much.”
The Habib Resection Device delivers high energy radio waves into tissue surrounding a tumor via a series of electrodes. The heat the radio waves create dries and seals off blood vessels within 40 seconds.
A surgeon is then able to safely remove a tumor without the risk of major blood loss and the large blood transfusion that may ensue. As much as 20 pints of blood can be lost in normal liver surgery, but Professor Habib's revolutionary device allows the loss of merely a thimbleful of the patient's blood.
More than 100 patients have benefited from the Habib Resection Device to date.
According to Dr. Habib: “Sometimes drugs can only shrink tumors so far and then surgery is needed. Where the tumor is situated is almost as important as its size. Being able to effectively clamp off the blood supply using heat means we can remove just about any liver tumor.”
The new device brings hope to the thousands of patients each year whose cancer has spread from its original site to the liver. “We call these secondaries and they invariably go to the liver, particularly in bowel cancer. If we can get the tumor out, the patient has a reasonable chance of surviving.”
Currently, some 20,000 bowel cancer patients die each year from liver cancer. Many are considered to have inoperable tumors because of the complicated nature of liver surgery. As a result of Dr. Habib’s device, that situation could change for many of these patients.
The Professor, originally from Egypt, also plans to sell the device at a reduced price to developing countries where it can be used to provide a treatment option for safe surgery in remote locations where there are no intensive care or blood transfusion facilities.
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Bloodless - Surgeon Develops Life-Saving Technique for Liver Cancer Surgery
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