3rd place for Jacqueline Pusch at Elevator Pitches

Fraunhofer IGB News /

In the Elevator Pitches ideas competition at the first “Network Value” Fraunhofer symposium on December 7 to 8, 2010, IGB employee Jacqueline Pusch was placed third out of 320 participants on the first day with her idea “Plaster for Intestinal Walls.” The plaster is intended to facilitate employing the new, minimally invasive NOTES surgery technique (natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery) for operations in the abdominal cavity via the mouth. This would enable doctors performing surgery on internal organs to switch from the risky laparotomy procedure that involves making an incision in the abdominal wall.

Elevator Pitches 2010

At present it is not possible to gain operative access to the abdominal cavity via the stomach or intestinal wall for two reasons. Firstly, suitable endoscopic instruments do not exist. And secondly, there is no safe method by which the incision through the stomach or intestinal wall necessary for the operation can be sealed again. Sealing is vital in order to prevent gastric acid and bacteria escaping into the abdominal cavity and causing fatal infections. The simplest solution would be a plaster that could be applied to the incision directly after surgery from the inside – before the instruments have been completely withdrawn via the mouth. Such a plaster could be made of collagenous proteins such as those present in the intestinal matrix and be produced with the aid of the electrospinning technique.