Flexible endoscopic instrument for diagnosis and treatment of early gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer is a common cancer endangering human life and health worldwide. Early detection and diagnosis of gastric cancer that is normally performed by flexible endoscope can significantly improve the survival rate of patients. However, current endoscopic instruments have some problems, such as limitation of degrees of freedom (DOFs) and lack of surgical triangulation. Meanwhile, the lack of an intraoperative technique for the real-time evaluation of early gastric cancer is also a serious problem. To solve these problems, we have developed a dual-bending flexible endoscopic instrument for the diagnosis and treatment of early gastric cancer. This instrument has a compact structure with a maximum outer diameter of 3 mm and an insertion length of 1220 mm. It has 5 DOFs with a dual-bending function, which can form a surgical operation triangulation to easily perform the endoscopic procedure. Apart from the surgical forceps, the end of the instrument can be equipped with different endoscopic devices to meet the needs of diagnosis and treatment, such as endomicroscopic probes, electrosurgical knives, and laser ablation optical fibers. It is verified that the instrument can carry these devices to complete corresponding tasks, demonstrating the great potential of this instrument in clinical applications.