Onaizah, O, Koszowska, Z, Winters, C et al. (5 more authors) (2021) Guidelines for Robotic Flexible Endoscopy at the Time of COVID-19. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 8. 612852. ISSN 2296-9144
Abstract
Flexible endoscopy involves the insertion of a long narrow flexible tube into the body for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. In the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, flexible endoscopy plays a major role in cancer screening, surveillance, and treatment programs. As a result of gas insufflation during the procedure, both upper and lower GI endoscopy procedures have been classified as aerosol generating by the guidelines issued by the respective societies during the COVID-19 pandemic—although no quantifiable data on aerosol generation currently exists. Due to the risk of COVID-19 transmission to healthcare workers, most societies halted non-emergency and diagnostic procedures during the lockdown. The long-term implications of stoppage in cancer diagnoses and treatment is predicted to lead to a large increase in preventable deaths. Robotics may play a major role in this field by allowing healthcare operators to control the flexible endoscope from a safe distance and pave a path for protecting healthcare workers through minimizing the risk of virus transmission without reducing diagnostic and therapeutic capacities. This review focuses on the needs and challenges associated with the design of robotic flexible endoscopes for use during a pandemic. The authors propose that a few minor changes to existing platforms or considerations for platforms in development could lead to significant benefits for use during infection control scenarios.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Copyright © 2021 Onaizah, Koszowska, Winters, Subramanian, Jayne, Arezzo, Obstein and Valdastri. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
Keywords: | robotic flexible endoscopy, endoscopes, gastrointestinal, infection control, aerosol generating procedure, COVID-19 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering (Leeds) > Robotics, Autonomous Systems & Sensing (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Royal Society wm150122 National Institute of Health - NIH (PHS) 6R01EB018992 EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/P027938/1 University of Turin Not Known EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/R045291/1 EU - European Union 818045 Cancer Research UK C64904/A27744 EU - European Union 952118 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 Feb 2021 17:38 |
Last Modified: | 26 Feb 2021 17:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media SA |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/frobt.2021.612852 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:171571 |