Engadget reports a new tool for minimally invasive operations - equipped with surgical needle sensors. It allows the surgeon to obtain high-resolution images directly during operation.

Both patients and doctors prefer the least invasive surgery, as they do not leave scarring, require less recovery time and carry less risk of infection. However, such operations are imperfect: in particular, it is rather difficult to obtain high-quality images of internal organs necessary for their conduct. Therefore, usually surgeons are limited to images obtained with ultrasound and MRI before surgery.

A new development - an optical ultrasonic needle - should change the approach to conducting operations. Thanks to her, the surgeon can receive images of soft tissues directly during work. The device is a needle with a 1 mm thick tip with two optical fibers inside. One of them generates short flashes of light, and the other reads light reflected by the body's tissues. As a result, the surgeon has at his disposal a high-quality image in real time.

New devices can not only provide doctors with information, but also carry out a part of the surgeon's work independently. So, the innovative apparatus "Harpoon", which is capable of sewing a damaged heart valve, has proved its effectiveness in the course of research on several dozen patients.