Inexpensive Device Offers Surgeons A Confident Grip On Delicate Tissue, Harvard University Reveals

Removing a malignant tumor from the head of the pancreas is a risky and demanding operation. The surgeon must carefully navigate around the stomach, the gallbladder, the bile duct, lymph nodes, and several high-pressure blood vessels. But an inexpensive device designed by Harvard engineering students and a surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center offers surgeons a confident grip throughout the delicate procedure. The gentle grasper, equipped with rubberized pressure sensors, has three slender fingers that can slip through a very small incision and tease cancerous tissue away from the pancreas without squeezing too hard.

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