The physical basics of magnetic-guided capsule endoscopy of the stomach and results of a feasibility study in the porcine stomach

摘要

We read with interest the gastric capsule paper by Rey et al. [1]. We would like to report on similar investigations that we undertook back in 1999 with a project group from the University of Erlangen-Niirnberg led by T. Rupprecht and M. Zapke. The investigations defined the technical specifications of a prototype for magnetic-guided endoscopy in children and adults, which were mainly to develop a system that did not require external cables and that allows freely adjustable movement of the capsule in three dimensions. These results have not yet been published.In the first theoretical attempt in 2000, a computer simulation study was performed to determine the feasibility of these specifications and to define the physical needs of a hardware prototype (Patent with T. Rupprecht).