A smart endoscopic ultrasound needle call for life

Abstract

Phones are linked to life in many ways, from keeping in touch with friends, relatives, and colleagues to calling for help in case of danger. In an extreme context, the last phone call is the ultimate appeal to life before the execution of a death sentence.On the other hand, phones are usually regarded as distracting and annoying in endoscopy suites. Patients are usually discouraged from using their phones in restricted-access hospital areas and doctors may appear unprofessional when using phones during their working activity. Our colleagues from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Bucharest have a different opinion: we should instead keep our phones on and have them wirelessly connected to an endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) needle while performing tissue acquisition.In this issue of Endoscopy, Ciocîrlan et al. report the results of a prospective trial using a digital accelerometer, which was taped onto an EUS fine needle (EZShot3 plus, 22G; Olympus Corp.) and connected via Bluetooth to the physician's smartphone [1]. A dedicated app was available to trace and show the speed of needle insertion into solid pancreatic tumors of more than 20 mm in size. The authors performed one slow needle pass (slower than 9.8 m/sec 2 ) and one fast needle pass (faster than 9.8 m/sec 2 ) in each lesion in a random order, fanning the needle 10-15 times inside the lesions on both passes. The study group consisted of 51 patients harboring solid pancreatic lesions (mean size 40 mm) equally distributed among the head, body, and tail.A smart endoscopic ultrasound needle call for lifeReferring to