From July 16 to 18, the semi-finals and finals of the 4th (2021) China Medical Devices Design and Entrepreneurship Competition-Minimally Invasive Devices with the theme of “Intelligent Manufacturing for Better Future” were held in Tonglu, Zhejiang province. Online registration of the competition was launched on March 5, and a total of 831 projects had been registered as of June 20. After preliminary screening and semi-finals, 18 projects advanced into the finals. In total, 2 first prizes, 3 second prizes, 5 third prizes and 8 excellent prizes were eventually selected. Surgical Dreamworks from the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) grabbed the second prize in the national finals by contributing the project entitled "Ultra-small flexible single-port laparoscopic system".
This project innovatively combines the rigid structure of traditional laparoscope and the flexible structure of endoscope. The flexible part at the anterior end is highly flexible, and the rigid rod part at the posterior end rotates with the Trocar site at the abdominal wall as the pivot point. It can be employed to complete the single-port multi-clamp procedures via a 10-mm Trocar, such as fenestration and drainage of hepatic cysts, abdominal exploration and biopsy,etc. With the financial support of Major New Medical Technology Project of our hospital and Key Research and Development Plan Project of Shaanxi Province, this system has been persistently modified and applied in rectal endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) experiment of animal models under the professional guidance from ProfessorLyu Yi, Professor Wu Zheng, Professor Wang Bo, Associate Professor Zhang Xiaogang, Attending Physician Li Yu andProfessor He Shuixiang. At present, the design of the 3rd-generation laparoscope has been optimized.
Through attending this competition, the clinical problems-oriented cross-disciplinary research outcomes of medicine and engineering in our hospital were displayed and authoritative experts also delivered professional comments and guidance on this project, which pinpointed the direction for subsequent research and provided an exchange platform for promoting the transformation of basic results.
