Improved patient survival and the growing need for better materials for medical devices.
| Dates: | 26 January 2022 |
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| Times: | 13:00 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Photon Science Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Professor Hans-Ulrich Laasch |
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Join us for this PSI seminar with guest speaker Professor Hans-Ulrich Laasch. Advances in oncological treatment have led to improved survival of cancer patients in most disease groups. While this is welcome news for patients and their families, it throws up new challenges for the biocompatibility and durability of medical implants. This has been most marked in metal stents used to re-establish the patency of the oesophagus and bowel after occlusion by cancer tissue. Increasingly these “endo-prostheses” are seen to fracture and disintegrate, resulting in recurrence of obstruction, necessitating further procedures and putting patients at unnecessary risk.
Less dramatic problems are seen with percutaneous kidney drainage tubes, which frequently occlude by cristallisation of urine. While this is a relatively low-key problem, the patients are at risk of life-threatening infection (sepsis) and the large number of drainage tubes placed and re-placed present a serious workload and economic burden to the health system.
If these problems could be addressed either by new materials or additional factors that improve the long-term performance of medical devices, benefits would include reduced risk to the patient, fewer complications and improved survival and a reduction in costly and potentially dangerous salvage procedures.
The presentation will demonstrate device failures and the consequences for the patient.
Speaker
Professor Hans-Ulrich Laasch
Organisation: The Christie
Biography: Following his undergraduate training and his doctorate at the Albert-Einstein University in Ulm, Germany, Hans-Ulrich initially trained as a general physician in the UK, passing the board exam for general medicine (MRCP) in 1995, before starting a career as a radiologist. Following qualification in Clinical Radiology (FRCR), he undertook a 4-year fellowship in GI-intervention and interventional endoscopy and was appointed as Head of Interventional Radiology at The Christie in 2005. Over the next 15 years he developed the service into an internationally recognised reference centre for cancer procedures with close ties to leading manufacturers in the medical device industry. In 2019 upper GI endoscopy was fully integrated into the radiology department, facilitating a regional referral service for combined upper GI procedures.
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