ENDORAIL ADD-ON DEVICE FOR SOLVING COLON LOOPS: PROOF OF CONCEPT IN A PHANTOM COLON. ​​

Aims Incomplete colonoscopy can result in missed colorectal cancer. Looping is a main cause for difficult and incomplete colonoscopy. The aim of this study is to assess the capability of Endorail to solve colon loops in a phantom model.

Methods Endorail (Endostart srl, Certaldo, Firenze, Italy) is composed by a handpiece containing a magnet, a balloon catheter and ferromagnetic fluid (water based iron powder dispersion) prefilled syringe. A colonoscope was arranged in alpha loop, reverse alpha loop and N-loop configurations in plastic colon phantom. Endorail procedure was conducted and successful loop reduction and procedure time were assessed.

Results Endorail was capable of successfully solve all colonoscope loop configurations according to the following procedure: the balloon catheter is advanced through the tool channel beyond the tip of the colonoscope; the balloon is inflated with 25 mL of ferromagnetic fluid; the handpiece is applied over the phantom abdomen to magnetically anchor the balloon; fast retraction of the colonoscope tip until the rectum allows to solve the loop and straighten the colon; retraction of the balloon catheter coupled with gentle insertion of the colonoscope allows the colonoscope to quickly advance through the catheter; once the colonoscope tip reaches the inflated balloon, the handpiece is removed and the balloon is deflated and withdrawn (mean time 2.50 min).

Conclusions We demonstrated the Endorail capability of solving colonoscope loops in a laboratory setting and indicate that Endorail has the potential to facilitate fast and easy loop reduction and colonoscopy completion also in clinical setting.

Publication History

Article published online:
14 April 2022