An Israeli firm has won approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for a tiny encapsulated video camera designed to give doctors close up views of patients' small intestines.
The “camera-in-a-pill,” developed and manufactured by Given Imaging, is designed to be swallowed. The M2A Swallowable Imaging Capsule uses wireless technology to beam back colour images of the lower intestine to a receiver worn on the patient's waistband.
After being swallowed, the camera wends its way painlessly through the digestive tract and is excreted eight to 72 hours later.
It was not designed to replace standard endoscopic examinations, Given Imaging said. Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration has stipulated that it must be used in conjunction with such tests.
However, it may save many patients from having to have surgery as endoscopes often cannot snake all the way through the small intestine and exploratory surgery is sometimes needed to reach a diagnosis.
Dr Blair Lewis of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who tested the pill camera on 20 patients, contended that many of the 25000 or so patients with internal bleeding from unknown causes could be helped by the device. “It shows tremendous promise,” he said.
Dr Dan Schultz, the Food and Drug Administration's director of abdominal devices, said that, although use of the pill camera is currently limited to patients with problems relating to the small intestine, the pill camera was “the beginning of a long road for this type of technology.”
Figure.
GIVEN IMAGING
M2A™ capsule passing through the duodenum