‘SpyGlass’ surgery performed for first time in Oman

Muscat: A successful surgery using spy-glass technology was performed by a team of doctors in Oman’s premier Royal Hospital. The team lead by Dr. Hisham bin Abdullah Al Dahab used the SpyGlass technique to treat bile duct stones using a laser. This is the first of its kind in the Sultanate of Oman that this technology is being used in Oman.

SpyGlass technology is a recently developed technique for the visualisation of the bile ducts.

SpyGlass is a fibre-optic camera, about the size of a pencil point, which is inserted into the upper digestive tract and threaded through the stomach and into the bile ducts. This allows doctors to quickly and precisely locate and examine tissue without performing surgery.

The advantages of using the SpyGlass technology is that it is a simpler methods of diagnosis followed by the removal of large stones in the bile ducts by laser, or other medical methods as warranted.

The technology provides a significant improvement in the diagnosis and treatment capabilities of benign and cancerous bile duct obstruction. Additionally the method is found to provide faster and more accurate diagnosis of pancreatic and bile duct cancers as well.