© Purenum GmbH
Kidney stones are often removed via an endoscopic procedure. If a stone is too large, the urologists break it into pieces using a laser. The larger pieces can be removed with a grasping instrument, but this is not possible for the smaller fragments – instead, they remain in the kidney in the hope that they will leave the body naturally. In the future, doctors will be able to remove even the smallest of stone fragments from the kidney during endoscopy using a hydrogel. This biocompatible 2-component system was developed by Purenum GmbH, a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM.
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