AUA 2018: Portable Digital Endoscopy Using Laptop Adaptor Device

San Francisco, CA USA (UroToday.com) Brian Calio, MD presented his institution’s experience using a portable, digital ureteroscope that uses a laptop as its video monitoring system. As an introduction to his talk, Dr. Calio explained the importance of ureteroscopy in urology today. However, he also explained that ureteroscopy presents a financial obstacle to many countries. These high costs can exceed $30,000 and includes the cost of a reusable rigid and/or flexible scope. CCD/CMOS video camera with coupler, halogen light source, video recorder. He also reported other concerns for ureteroscopy including the rate of scope failure (12.5 cases), average time to repair (11 days), average flexible ureteroscope repair cost ($4597), and risk of improper sterilization. For this study, Dr. Calio presents the Neoscope, a low cost, single use scope that may be an alternative to standard scopes.

The Neoscope is a single use rigid or flexible scope. It has a CMOS imaging sensor, built in light source, and can transmit images and videos to most laptops using an USB cable. The laptop can be used as just the viewing platform or can be enabled to store videos and images or transmit them to remote locations via other applications and features. The Neoscope can be seen pictured below.

Dr. Calio concluded that high costs of traditional ureteroscopy equipment may prevent hospitals in some countries from performing flexible ureteroscopy. However, he states that the Neoscope with its low cost (<$1000) and ability to connect to laptops has the potential to provide image quality comparable to that of more expensive systems.

Presented by: Brian Calio, MD

Written by: Renai Yoon, Department of Urology, University of California-Irvine at the 2018 AUA Annual Meeting - May 18 - 21, 2018 – San Francisco, CA USA

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