Side Viewing Cameras Provide Panoramic Colonoscopies

A novel side viewing video cap that is fitted on a standard colonoscope provides enhanced, wide-angle imaging of the colon without adverse events.

The Third Eye Panoramic device uses two video cameras that are directed laterally from the left and right side of a colonoscope. The video images are displayed on both sides of the colonoscope's forward view, so that the combined images, as viewed on a single monitor, present a panoramic view that reveals areas behind folds and flexures during both intubation and withdrawal. Deflection or retroflexion of the tip of the colonoscope is achieved without difficulty, and the device does interfere with biopsies and polypectomies.


The panoramic device clips onto the outside of a colonoscope at its tip, leaving the instrument channel completely free for suctioning debris and for passing instruments. Also, because the Third Eye Panoramic device can be disinfected and reused many times, it can reduce cost per procedure. The Third Eye Panoramic device is a product of Avantis Medical Systems (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), and is based on the company’s Retroscope device, which has only one rear-facing camera. The Third Eye Panoramic device is currently not available the United States.

“We listened carefully to endoscopists as they told us what they liked about the previous Retroscope device and what they would like to see improved,” said Jack Higgins, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Avantis Medical Systems. “Feedback based on thousands of procedures with the previous device showed that doctors want to see more of the colon by using an additional camera, but they need the product to be easy to use and inexpensive. Not surprisingly, doctors also told us a new device should allow them to continue using their preferred colonoscope.”

“It's highly intuitive, and when one of the lateral cameras shows you a polyp behind a fold or flexure, you know exactly which way to deflect the colonoscope to find and remove it,” added Moshe Rubin, MD, an associate professor of clinical medicine at New York Hospital Queens (NY, USA), who conducted a feasibility study of the device in 25 patients scheduled to undergo colonoscopy. “Although this was a strictly qualitative feasibility study not powered to determine adenoma detection rates, the side views allowed us to see a number of lesions that we wouldn't have been able to find with the colonoscope's forward view alone.”

Related Links:
Avantis Medical Systems
New York Hospital Queens