Minimally Invasive Procedures

Female clinician bending down to reassure a senior female patient in a wheelchair

Olympus develops clinically advanced, minimally invasive solutions for healthcare professionals that help improve outcomes and enhance quality of life for their patients.

A minimally invasive procedure is any procedure that is done in lieu of an open surgery with the same procedural goal. Unlike an open surgery, where the physician makes an incision to directly view and operate on the surgical site, a minimally invasive procedure uses a device, such as a laparoscope, gastroscope or colonoscope, which allows indirect observation of the target area on a viewing monitor. Generally access to the target site is created through a small incision in the skin or via one of the body’s cavities or anatomical openings. Because of the less invasive approach to viewing or treating the target site, minimally invasive procedures can ease patient trauma, accelerate recovery times and enhance procedural efficiency.

As endoscopic technologies have advanced, their medical application has grown significantly. Today many surgeries that used to require opening of the throat, chest, abdomen, pelvis or other areas of the body can now be performed endoscopically. For example, a polyp on the wall of the large intestine can be removed using a minimally invasive procedure called a polypectomy. This was made possible by the invention in 1969 of a special snare by Hiromi Shinya, a gastroenterologist, in collaboration with Olympus. Insertion of the polypectomy snare into an endoscope allows the physician to cut off and remove the polyp, guided by real-time video imaging captured at the tip of the endoscope and displayed on a monitor.