Saturday 27 / April / 2024
Muscat: During a biopsy, a medical procedure, doctors get exposed to X-ray radiations, which can lead to different diseases. Now, thanks to the latest Omani invention, doctors can conduct a biopsy while keeping a safe distance from the harmful radiations.
A biopsy involves taking a sample of tissue from the body in order to examine it more closely using X-rays, and being exposed to such radiations does carry the risk of causing cancer many years or decades later, but this risk is thought to be very small, according to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS).
Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) student Hamed Al Salmi, explained that his “Robotic biopsy” is used instead of the traditional (manual) operation to take a tissue biopsy from the patients.
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“By using the robot, doctors will be able to take a biopsy outside a CT scan room, which is used to take pictures in very fine slices through the body via X-rays,” Al Salmi said, adding, “Therefore, this project will reduce time, effort and radiation exposure while maintaining high accuracy in obtaining tissue biopsy.”
According to the engineering student, the traditional operation for a biopsy is done by using an X-ray scanner specifically computed tomography (X-ray CT) to take photos of the targeted organs and tissues of patient.
“A doctor starts conducting a biopsy using a long needle depending on his memory recall from photos and past experience about the targeted position,” he added, while explaining that the main problems facing any doctor are the absence of accuracy and radiation exposure.
“Moreover, the old methods of operation takes a long time and involves huge effort from both doctors and patients, and the brand new invention overcomes those challenges,” he added.
“In order to take a biopsy, the targeted tissue should be drugged by using a drug needle after that the biopsy needle is injected, which should have the same path of the drug needle.
However, this procedure is difficult to do since the needles are blindly injected into the tissue. Therefore, doctors need a number of trials to correctly inject the needle,” Al Salmi stated, adding that the new device would allow for higher accuracy while injecting both needles in the same path.
“Our device costs around OMR400 and will reduce the time of the operation by decreasing the number of trials,” Al Salmi said.
Asked if he and his team have plans to introduce the technology at a local hospital, Al Salmi agreed, pointing out that this will only be done after experimenting with the device and testing its applicability.
It is worth mentioning that the team participated in the 7th Engineering Students Gathering at the SQU, which started on Sunday, and was held under the patronage of Salim Bin Nassir Al Oufi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Gas, and Dr. Ali Al Bemani, vice chancellor of SQU.
