Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 28, 2017; 23(12): 2168-2174
Published online Mar 28, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i12.2168
Miniature magnetically anchored and controlled camera system for trocar-less laparoscopy
Ding-Hui Dong, Hao-Yang Zhu, Yu Luo, Hong-Ke Zhang, Jun-Xi Xiang, Fei Xue, Rong-Qian Wu, Yi Lv
Ding-Hui Dong, Hao-Yang Zhu, Yu Luo, Hong-Ke Zhang, Jun-Xi Xiang, Fei Xue, Rong-Qian Wu, Yi Lv, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Dong DH, Wu RQ and Lv Y conceived and designed the experiments; Dong DH contributed to miniature magnetically anchored and controlled camera system supplement; Dong DH, Zhu HY, Luo Y, Zhang HK and Xue F perform the surgery; Dong DH and Xiang JX collected data; Xiang JX analyzed tissue sample; Dong DH, Wu RQ and Lv Y contributed to manuscript writing.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Major Instrumental Program), No. 81127005; and the Science and Technology Innovation Project of Shaanxi Province, China, No. S2016TNGY0119.
Institutional review board statement: The entire study was carried out in strict accordance with protocols approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University (Approval No. 2016-55).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Experimental Animal Center, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and performed according to the Guidelines for Animal Experimentation of Xi’an Jiaotong University (SYXK-SHAN 2014-003) and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals Published by the US National Institutes of Health.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors report no conflicts of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: The technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset are available from the corresponding author at luyi169@126.com. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yi Lv, PhD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China. luyi169@126.com
Telephone: +86-29-85323902 Fax: +86-29-85323900
Received: November 28, 2016
Peer-review started: December 1, 2016
First decision: January 10, 2017
Revised: January 17, 2017
Accepted: February 17, 2017
Article in press: February 17, 2017
Published online: March 28, 2017
Processing time: 119 Days and 22.9 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To design a miniature magnetically anchored and controlled camera system to reduce the number of trocars which are required for laparoscopy.

METHODS

The system consists of a miniature magnetically anchored camera with a 30° downward angle, an external magnetically anchored unit, and a vision output device. The camera weighs 12 g, measures Φ10.5 mm × 55 mm and has two magnets, a vision model, a light source, and a metal hexagonal nut. To test the prototype, the camera was inserted through a 12-mm conventional trocar in an ex vivo real liver laparoscopic training system. A trocar-less laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed 6 times using a 12-mm and a 5-mm conventional trocar. In addition, the same procedure was performed in four canine models.

RESULTS

Both procedures were successfully performed using only two conventional laparoscopic trocars. The cholecystectomy was completed without any major complication in 42 min (38-45 min) in vitro and in 50 min (45-53 min) using an animal model. This camera was anchored and controlled by an external unit magnetically anchored on the abdominal wall. The camera could generate excellent image. with no instrument collisions.

CONCLUSION

The camera system we designed provides excellent optics and can be easily maneuvered. The number of conventional trocars is reduced without adding technical difficulties.

Keywords: Trocar-less laparoscopy; Magnetically anchored and controlled camera; Minimally invasive surgery

Core tip: This study introduced a miniature magnetically anchored and controlled camera system. The miniature magnetically anchored camera is among the smallest size, and it can pass through a conventional 12-mm trocar. Magnetically anchored instruments are positioned intra-abdominally and stabilized through a coupling force to external magnets on the abdominal skin. In this way, the instruments do not share space with the trocar during surgery. By using this camera system, the number of trocars required for conventional laparoscopy could be reduced without adding technical difficulties.