Welding for wounds to replace sutures
Updated: 2011-08-29 19:17
By Cheng Yingqi (chinadaily.com.cn)
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GUANGZHOU - If the sparks fly, you may soon be able to ask scientists to weld you and your loved one together, which while it might not be a good idea could soon be a practical one, as Chinese researchers are trying to introduce Ukrainian welding technology into the nation's hospitals.
"The welding of live tissue, compared to the traditional coagulation method after surgery, can effectively reduce the risk of bacterial infection and the formation of scars, and as well cut the operating time," said Qiu Xianyang, director of the Guangzhou General Research Institute for Industrial Technology (GGRIIT), a science research institute under the Guangdong Provincial Government.
According to Qiu, the research institute signed a cooperation agreement with the technology owner - the E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU) - in April 2011.
"Researchers at our institute have finished document study on the technology, and we have promoted it at a dozen hospitals in Guangdong with the help of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology," Qiu said.
"But there are still procedures we need to go through with the health department before its clinical application is allowed," he added.
"The welding technology can save patients the pain of removing stitches, and is especially good for bowel surgeries, because it can reduce the risk of infection. So we are working hard to help our own research institutions to introduce it to Chinese hospitals," said Li Xinghua, head of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology.
Scientists have been trying to use tissue-welding technology on humans for decades, but in the past organs would inevitably fail after the welding.
However, NASU established an international team between 1993 and 1998 that finally solved the problem.
"These experiments were preceded by surgical operations using the welding technology on more than 1,000 test animals," said Dr Georgy S. Marynsky, head of the department of welding and related technologies for medicine and environment of NASU.
"For the welding technology to be approved for wide introduction into clinical surgery, it was necessary to have reliable data on consistently repeatable results of its application. This data could be obtained only on animals," Marynsky said.
The scientists then developed a welding system that included special software, bipolar welding tools connected to a power source and special assembly devices.
Evaluation of the welding technology application was later performed during operations on human intestines, livers and gall bladders. The Ukraine's Ministry of Health issued a certificate for the use of the welding equipment in medical practice in 2004.
The process has now been used in over 65,000 operations in 50 hospitals in Ukraine.