First successful bariatric application for LapDome device

Laparoscopic surgeon utilises LapDome on obese patient deemed not fit for standard laparoscopic access

Narvitas Medical Devices International Limited, a UK-based global medical device company, has announced the successful use of its LapDome in a patient that would be medically categorised as morbidly obese. LapDome, which the company claims is the first commercially available laparoscopic surgery access device, is designed to provide safer and more rapid access to the abdominal cavity at the outset of laparoscopic surgery. The procedure was performed on a patient weighing 308lbs with a BMI49 by Dr Andreas Thurkow, in the Netherlands.

According to the company, the LapDome addresses a critical need in the laparoscopic surgical market (one of the largest medical procedure markets) and was developed to advance the standard of care for laparoscopic access. The LapDome device is a proprietary laparoscopic surgery access device. The device is a dome-shaped technology that utilises negative pressure to raise the anterior abdominal wall for rapid and safe access to the abdominal cavity by surgical instruments.

LapDome device

Through the unique usage of the LapDome’s dome shape, negative pressure, and its proprietary fustoconical port, the LapDome creates a temporary pneumoperitoneum space through which a surgeon can safely position a Veress needle to inflate the abdomen for surgery. The current standards of care for access to the abdomen, both Veress and Hassons technique are labour and time intensive with both carrying high complication rates.

“Based on clinical experience to date we know LapDome to be an effective surgical tool in enhancing laparoscopic surgery access and increasing safety for the patient through its unique design,” said Glenn Foley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Narvitas. “We now have the beginnings of examining the utility of LapDome to treat a patient population outside the norm and potentially expand the utility of laparoscopic surgery to patients who may have been deemed inappropriate for laparoscopic surgery and relegated to standard surgery with all its relative shortcomings.”

Narvitas was granted the CE Mark in February 2016.