Alexandre Anthis (ETHZ 2023)

Every year, globally, 14 million patients undergo abdominal surgeries with the intension to overcome conditions ranging from cancer to obesity. Despite their often lifesaving character, these operations are at the source of some of the most dreaded and frequent complications known to the field of visceral surgery. In more than 10% of the patients, gastrointestinal leaks develop at the level of sutured or stapled reconnections, only days after a successful surgery and entail the leaking of digestive and microbially active fluids into patients, causing gravely delayed recoveries and death (6 – 27%).

Despite advancements on many fronts, technologies that can identify early and unambiguously such deteriorations are still lacking, causing the loss of human and social capital worldwide.

In this project we strive to develop and bring forward a technology herein termed AnastoSEAL capable of both sealing sutured tissues and sensing impending leaks in a non-electronic manner. The project is currently undergoing pre-clinical in-vivo trials in pigs.