Innovations for laparoscopic surgery

In this research line we focus on increasing global access to minimally invasive surgery.

If we want to reach Sustainable Development Goal 3 – Universal Health coverage for all- we believe that biomedical engineers from all over the world need to focus on increasing access to global surgery in contribution to what is already done by many stakeholders from all over the world.

Since, the need for surgery in LMICs is tremendous; more people die from treatable surgical conditions than from tuberculosis, malaria and HIV put together and the fact that less than 10% of all surgeries performed are received by the poorest one-third of the world’s population – this is a global health area that deserves more attention than it is currently receiving.

Additionally, surgery and especially minimally invasive surgery is highly depending on well-functioning medical equipment and biomedical engineering expertise is therefore of great need in this field. The benefits of increasing global access to minimally invasive surgery include the effective replacement of modern diagnostic procedures (such as MRI and CT) that are often unavailable, but also the decreased risk of infection, blood loos and a rapid return to work after surgery.

We work on innovations to decrease current barriers to the use of medical equipment in LMICs settings, including:

- A USB laparoscope for gasless laparoscopic surgery
- A lifting device for gasless surgery with increased visibility
- A laparoscopic holder to support solo surgery
- An easily transportable laparoscopic tower
- Context specific electrosurgical unit

We collaborate in these projects with Dr. Gnanaraj J, COSECSA and the University of Leeds.