Officials with TransEnterix announce that surgeons from the United States and Paraguay have successfully performed first-in-man studies of its revolutionary single-incision, single-port, four-channel laparoscopic surgical platform called the SPIDER™ System.
The SPIDER System – short for Single Port Instrument Delivery Extended Reach – allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive abdominal surgeries entirely through the umbilicus, leaving no visible scar. It’s the first single-port system to offer surgeons true triangulation and other critical techniques common in multi-port laparoscopy.
Fewer complications, faster full recovery, less post-surgical pain and an improved aesthetic result are potential benefits of single-port technology. Conventional laparoscopic surgery typically involves three to five incisions, which leave small scars in a patient’s abdomen. Surgeons in the United States perform more than 2.5 million laparoscopic procedures each year. TransEnterix expects to market its platform early next year.
In the TransEnterix first-in-man studies, surgeons successfully used the SPIDER System to perform cholecystectomies – gallbladder removals – on seven patients in Paraguay. One of the surgeons was American; the other surgeon was Paraguayan. The patients were Paraguayans who previously had received medical diagnoses requiring surgical removal of their gallbladders.
Todd M. Pope, president and CEO, said the procedures went extremely well, adding that surgeons confirmed that cholecystectomies performed with the SPIDER System took approximately the same amount of time as standard laparoscopic procedures.
“And that’s a critical point to make because surgeons won’t be interested in new technology that requires that they spend more time in the operating room – technological advances should make their jobs easier, not harder,” Pope said. “As we knew from having worked so closely with TransEnterix’s expert surgeon advisers, the SPIDER System is extremely user friendly. Surgeons who are comfortable with current laparoscopic techniques will adapt easily to our new platform.”
Dr. Aurora Pryor, a surgeon who serves on the TransEnterix Scientific Advisory Board, oversaw the first-in-man studies in Paraguay. She said the SPIDER System performed exactly as expected.