Maintaining adequate illumination is a major challenge for procedures that require navigation into the deep cavities of the ear, nose and throat, and so, not surprisingly, reliable, maneuverable light sources are especially important for guiding surgeons through delicate otorhinolaryngologic anatomy.
Dr Lorenzo Sabatino, a specialist in integrated therapies in otolaryngology at Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, Rome, explains how Vivo Surgical’s KLARO™ in vivo lighting device provides a flexible source of light that enhances visibility and optimizes ENT surgical outcomes.
Emerging from the shadows
A major challenge during any ENT procedure is inadequate illumination of deep surgical cavities, as irregular surface anatomy can obstruct the focused beam of a headlight, and even fiberoptic endoscopes do not achieve optimal exposure.
Surgeons within the otolaryngology team had struggled to find an effective lighting solution to guide procedures, but Dr Sabatino explained how Vivo Surgical’s KLARO™ provided clarity: “Like any anatomical orifice, the oral cavity has a small entrance and using conventional lighting solutions or other optics leads to blind spots and shadows.
However, KLARO™ illumination systems provide us with great results as they generate a diffuse uniform light, and are easily adapted to other surgical equipment that we routinely use during procedures.”
Surgical visibility that reaches new lights
KLARO™ has been successfully used by Dr Sabatino and the team to illuminate structures such as the soft palate and palatopharyngeal muscle during pharyngoplasty. The technology has also been commended by international surgeons for its use in live surgery following a congress in Rome – the 3rd Course on Surgical Innovations and New Technologies in Obstructive Sleep Apnoea And Snoring In The Era Of Precision Medicine – during which the device lit the way for a barbed pharyngoplasty, eliminating the need for surgical headlights. Dr Sabatino commented on the versatility of KLARO™:
“It is ideal for helping surgeons’ visibility, and also for recording high-quality live footage that can be used for teaching purposes.”
Flexible features to light the way
KLARO™ is an unobtrusive and highly adaptable in vivo surgical lighting device, with a light strip diameter of just 4.6 mm. It provides a 340° scope of illumination and four levels of light intensity – which can effortlessly be adjusted with a single button – and gives exceptional visibility throughout deep surgical cavities, while minimizing the disruptions that constant readjustment would cause. In addition, the light operates at a safe temperature of 38 °C and is supplied as a sterile, single-use tool to eliminate the risk of burn injury or contamination.
The technology is proving very beneficial for ENT surgery, as Dr Sabatino described: “We have been using KLARO™ since April 2021, and it has been very easy to implement, and really flexible for use within the oral cavity, especially when we add the light source to a tongue depressor to spread the light across the surgical site.
The device is hands-free and straightforward to use, allowing surgeons to move freely as they operate, and its lightweight and cordless battery pack can easily be clipped onto surgical drapes or placed in our pockets for convenience. The numerous features of the apparatus make it very versatile, and we hope to continue to adapt it to other procedures for obstructive sleep apnoea – like the base of tongue reduction surgery and epiglottoplasty – in the future.”
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