A new device for removing liver tumours with virtually no blood loss has been successfully used for the first time in America. The Habib 4X resection device is named after its inventor Professor Nagy Habib, Professor of Hepato-Biliary Surgery at Imperial College London and chief of service for gastrointestinal surgery at Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust in west London. The revolutionary new device uses radiofrequency energy to ‘seal’ tissue around a tumour site, allowing the tumour to be removed while preventing blood loss and other complications. The device has enabled surgeons to operate where previously it would have been too risky. The Habib 4X works by delivering high-energy radio waves through a hand held device consisting of four electrodes into tissue around the tumour. They heat cells causing them to dehydrate and thus form a seal. The tumour is removed with a scalpel, with virtually no blood loss, and without the use of staples, glue, ties, and sutures.
Before use of the device in the UK for the removal of liver tumours, patients often lost up to ten pints of blood during the operation. Now, less than 50ml (an egg-cup full) is lost, and the patient spends less time in hospital intensive care. Over 100 patients have been operated on with the new device since October 2004, and none have died or suffered serious illness after the operation. The average hospital stay has been reduced from two weeks to eight days. When patients were followed up over a period of between two and 20 months, tumours had not returned in any of them. “The liver is the second commonest site of cancer in the body,” comments Professor Habib, “So the potential of the Habib 4X is huge. The first use of the device in America is a significant and exciting milestone.”
Science Daily
September 27, 2005
Original web page at Science Daily