BehindTheMedspeak: Habib Sealer

New in cancer surgery is the "Habib Sealer," named after its inventor, Dr. Nagy Habib, head of liver surgery at London's Hammersmith Hospital.

Habib's invention is a hand-held radio wave generator which "cooks" tissue around liver tumors.

After using the device, surgeons can proceed to remove liver tumors without the risk of profuse bleeding that normally accompanies liver surgery.

Habib says the device not only eliminates the need for blood transfusions during the surgery, but reduces the average hospital stay after such surgery from 15 to 8 days.

The sealer has also been used for kidney and spleen surgery, and Habib hopes to extend it to the pancreas, uterus, and lungs.

The FDA is expected to approve it for US use in February of next year.

Here's the reason this item made it into bookofjoe: it costs only £600 ($1,150).

I thought to myself, can't be.

Medical devices, expecially original ones, cost many thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, at least in the U.S.

I mean, Boston Scientific charges $5,000 apiece for its tiny drug-coated stents.

But wait, there's more.

Habib believes mass production could make his invention much cheaper, and that it could sell for as little as £5 ($9.50) in developing countries.

Habib said in today's Financial Times story, "All they will have to buy is a simple hand-held device, which does not need any expensive additional equipment."

Amazing and wonderful.

[via Clive Cookson and The Financial Times]