Moscow and Australian scientists improve lives with ultra-resilience

A consortium of Prof. Sergei Prokoshkin led group of Russian scientists at MISiS, a leading Russian university based in Moscow, and experts from Endogene-Globetek, an Australian company, has tapped into the physical effect of shape-memory and ultra-resilience alloys to develop innovation technologies, the MISiS website  announced . 

The knowledge-intensive techniques, based on some metals’ fundamental property of returning to their original shape after extremely strong deformation, have led the collaborative researchers to the development of a range of unique medical instruments for neurology, cardiovascular surgery, paramedics, etc. 

According to Dr. Prokoshkin, the shape-memory effect was discovered in the Soviet Union as far back as 1948. 

The new instruments are said to be easy and intuitive for use and enable surgeons to do surgery fast, safely, and with minimum risk for patients. Using the innovative equipment is expected to dramatically reduce the cost of medical operations, as the approach associated with the instruments is noninvasive, and no general anesthesia is required. 

A self-moving endoscope for intestinal balloon and stenting therapy enables fast examination of the entire gastrointestinal tract, including the hard-to-reach small intestine, a checkup no existing instrument can possibly enable today, the source claims. The solution can make it possible to diagnose intestinal cancer much faster than physicians do today, treat Crohn’s disease, a disorder which is getting increasingly widespread in the developed world, and also quickly extract poisons from the intestines. No anesthesia and scalpel are used in the process. 

A cardiovascular stapler is a new generation of stitching tools in surgical treatment of cardiovascular diseases, the deadliest natural killer ever. The stapler enables coronary artery bypass graft using noninvasive methods without coercive cardiac arrest. All it reportedly takes is just two small punctures in proximity to the heart—and a patient can leave his hospital within 24 hours. Complete with preparatory procedures, the surgery lasts about an hour—a sharp contrast to the four-to-five hours taken to perform this kind of surgery today. An operation on the heart that keeps beating saves the patient 20 years of his life, the scientists say. 

A “smart clasp” with its “clip holder” delivery system may lend a hand to vascular and cardio surgeons. The clasp is made of an alloy with direct and reversible shape memory, and the mechanism of temporary or permanent delivery to blood vessels or arteries is believed to make it possible to put or remove the clip without putting too much pressure on the vessels. 

The “Trawl” ultra-resilient trap will help surgeons rapidly remove alien objects from the trachea, gallstones from the biliary tract, or blood clots from the vessels. This is an instrument paramedics would need badly. 

The collaboration between MISiS and the Australian researchers began in 2010, and now the partners are heading for their effort’s commercialization stage. They have already picked their future manufacturing partners in Russia and Taiwan, the source said.

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