By Guo Fengkuan, Peng Bingjie and Zhang Yang
“Without administering anesthesia or intubation, you can easily do gastroscopy for a patient swallowing the little capsule,” said military doctor Qian Yangyang, showing a small capsule in the gastroenterology clinic on November 15 aboard the Chinese PLA Navy’s hospital ship Peace Ark during the Mission Harmony-2022 in Indonesia.
This magic capsule has won acclaim from Indonesian health experts and clinicians. Over the past few days, Qian Yangyang has been unusually busy due to an endless stream of patients coming for medical examination.
“What the patient takes is actually a capsule endoscope , which can do 360 degrees rotation without dead angel in the digestive tract through precise magnetic control technology, and take pictures at the same time,” said Qian Yangyang as he gently manipulated the surgeon console . “It is not only fast and accurate in positioning with an error of only a millimeter. After the inspection, the capsule will be automatically discharged to realize painless inspection.” Using this device, a patient's gastroscopy would take less than 20 minutes.
A patient Sun Naiheng had been plagued by stomach problems for years. “In the past 10 years, I have done gastroscopy in various ways, and it has never been as easy and fast as today,” he said. “I have paid close attention to the magnetic capsule gastroscope technology in China since the day I heard about it. I can’t imagine that one day I could try it on the hospital ship Peace Ark.”
“This Magnetic-controlled capsule endoscopy (MCE) is completely independently developed by China,” Qian Yangyang always adds this sentence in her introduction to the system. “At present, we have conducted MCE examinations for more than 30 Indonesian patients, using Chinese technology to relieve their pain and provide convenience.”
Guo Zhifu, head of the internal medicine team of the Mission Harmony-2022 , told reporters that besides the MCE, they also carried much advanced medical equipment, such as portable gastroscope, isolated wireless stethoscope , wireless telemedicine equipment, etc., so that more advanced medical technology, equipment, and high-quality medical services could benefit Indonesian people.
On November 14, a case of minimally invasive otoendoscopic surgery was successfully done aboard the hospital ship Peace Ark, which helped a local patient with years-long chronic ear-borne trouble. After the surgery, the patient’s hearing greatly improved.
It is learned that at present, minimally invasive otoendoscopic surgery is the latest means to treat otological diseases, and the surgical cost of treatment abroad is higher. This time, the hospital ship Peace Ark brought this latest technology to Indonesia to treat patients for free, showing the boundless love of Chinese medical staff.
“It is the shared aspiration of all our medical staff to bring China's advanced medical technology, equipment, and concepts abroad and even to the world to provide patients with high-quality and efficient medical services,” Guo Zhifu said.