ENT Professor at Kolkata Medical College develops device to retrieve slippery objects from oesophagus, gets patent from Govt
Kolkata: A new era in the medical field is about, to begin with, the introduction of an innovative yet simple device developed by Dr Sudip Das, professor of ENT at Medical College Hospital Kolkata.
Dr Das, who spent years conceptualizing an ENT device developed like no other in the past, recently got its patent from the Union Government of India and received huge praise from the medical fraternity.
The new device has been designed to retrieve round and slippery foreign objects from the oesophagus, which the conventional forceps cannot retract.
The doctor got the idea of developing the device after observing that patients who visit the ENT specialist with complications like any objects stuck in their airway or food passage after accidental swallowing often result in an adverse outcome.
Objects like coins and whistles can be extracted with conventional forceps. But these forceps cannot grasp round and slippery objects like marbles. As a result, such objects are generally pushed down to the abdomen so that they pass down to the gut and come out with stool. If this does not happen doctors remove it by cutting open the abdomen.
Therefore, to resolve the issue, Dr Das prepared the device to fill the void. The device has a small spoon-like head that can hold slippery, round objects.
In 2012, the concept was first presented at a conference in Kolkata and after that, it took 2.5 years to complete the process of developing the device. Most importantly, the design of the device took more time than running clinical trials on it.
The device was tested on patients in 2016 mostly children who had accidentally swallowed objects like a round marble. He underwent the clinical test at the college to where he was transferred.
Explaining the device, Dr Das told TOI, "It was during my stint at IPGMER that I started conceptualizing an instrument. The instrument design had to be modified at least eight to nine times during the clinical trial to attain design perfection. Once this was achieved, I applied for the patient in 2016. Talks are already on with a device manufacturing company so that it is available for use by the ENT fraternity," said Das.
Professor Saumendra Nath Bandyopadhyay, ENT head at MCHK said "Das has come up with this simple and innovative device which is economically and professionally viable. And his perseverance in developing the design and getting a patent is laudable.”
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