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Launch of Capsule Endoscopy
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"The disposable capsule propels through the gastrointestinal tract and relays images using UHF signals to a radio transmitter on the patient's chest"
"Endoscopy is no sweat now, just pop a camera-in-pill"
Endoscopy is no more a painful procedure. Thanks to Capsule Endoscopy. You don't have to open your mouth wide and wait for the Gastroenterologist to thrust the 10mm tube down your throat to see what is happening in your stomach. Only, the new method costs Rs. 25,000.
A battery incorporated digital camera on a chip, a light source and a radio transmitter now come in a pill-sized package that can be swallowed by patients to enable non-surgical imaging of the gastrointestinal tract.
The facility introduced in the state as a joint venture by the Coimbatore-based K.G. Hospital and city-based Bharath Scans was today inaugurated by Chief Minister J Jayalalitha at the State Secretariat.
"The procedure was recently invented by an Israel-based scientist. Barring one hospital in Hyderabad none of the others in the country have this facility. Two centers in this state will now introduce this facility for the benefit of the public," says Dr. G. Bakthavathsalam, Chairman, K.G. Hospital and Post Graduate Medical Institute.
The wireless Capsule Endoscopy system provides real-colour images of the GI tract after the patient swallows the device.
"The patient need not even stay in the hospital. All we have to do is tie the tiny radio transmitter on the patient's chest. Once he swallows the pill, he can leave the hospital, and even go for work," says Dr. V.G. Mohan Prasad, Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist of K.G. Hospital.
The disposable capsule propels through the Gastrointestinal tract and the images are transmitted from the capsule using UHF signals to a radio transmitter (like an ECG).
The capsule provides more than three hours of real colour images. While the camera is later flushed of from the body through the fecal matter, the data is stored in the transmitter is downloaded to a computer workstation and processed to produce a video clip of the images. For this, the patient has to return the transmitter to the hospital.
"The data indicates where the capsule was at any particular time. This is important for the Gastroenterologist to locate the diseased tissue," says a doctor at Bharath Scans.
Also, unlike the conventional endoscopy, the pill provides images of the small intestine. "The small intestine is 21 feet long. Getting there through conventional endoscopy is very difficult. But this makes the diagnosis easy and the pill camera has extended the limits of endoscopy," says Dr. G. Bakthavathsalam. The patient too will find that the pill is more comfortable than endoscopy, he adds.
The cost of the endoscopy is now priced at Rs. 25,000 per capsule. "You must not look at it as just a capsule. It is a procedure used for diagnosis. The equipment is expensive, even the hospital had to shell out more than Rs. 30 lakh for the equipment that is used to download the signals," says Dr. G. Bakthavathsalam.
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