Life-threatening 'leaks' after surgery could be flagged faster with tiny new device
A tiny, implantable device could detect when tissues in the body spring a leak following gastrointestinal (GI) surgery, and it could do so before those leaks become deadly, new animal research suggests. Patients who've had GI surgery — for example, to remove cancer from their stomach or pancreas — can develop leaks in the days after their procedure. This can occur if the tubes that connect organs in the GI tract are not properly resealed afterward. Between 2.7% to 25% of GI surgeries result in leaks, depending on where the tubes are resealed. This leaking fluid can ooze into other parts of the body, triggering infections, and in serious cases, blood poisoning and sepsis. Doctors usually spot leaks by closely tracking a patient's symptoms and scanning their abdomen using techniques such as computed tomography (CT). However, it can be difficult from these scans to distinguish bodily fluid in its proper place from that which has leaked out of an abdominal organ...