Ethicon Endo-Surgery Studies Presented at DDW Demonstrate Potential of Pure NOTES Surgery With Company...( CINCINNATI June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- E...),Health

CINCINNATI, June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. today announced that multiple studies presented at the 2009 Digestive Disease Week (DDW) demonstrate the company's novel, investigational* Toolbox enables natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) procedures without laparoscopic support in porcine models. One of the studies concluded that a new adaptable minimally-invasive surgical platform for NOTES and single-site laparoscopy (SSL) was successfully used to complete a variety of key surgical activities critical to pure natural orifice surgery and SSL.

The seven studies presented at DDW, which involved porcine models and a variety of NOTES procedures, follows 15 studies involving Ethicon Endo-Surgery devices presented in April at the 2009 Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) Annual Meeting. In the coming months, the Ethicon Endo-Surgery Toolbox for natural orifice surgery will be evaluated in a human clinical trial under an investigational device exemption (IDE) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"To date, most NOTES procedures performed in humans have been with laparoscopic support. In our study, we found several of the devices in the Ethicon Endo-Surgery Toolbox could successfully be used to address some of the critical visibility and access obstacles present with a pure NOTES approach, warranting further investigation," said Klaus Thaler, M.D., Department of Surgery, University of Missouri Health System.

Investigators of the study entitled, "The Development and Testing of an Adaptable Minimally-Invasive Surgical Platform - The Hydra" found that this surgical platform addressed several challenges with NOTES, including visibility, platform stability and adaptability to be used in multiple interventions and procedures. The surgical platform was used both transgastrically and transvaginally completing multiple key s
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