Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, distension: these are among the symptoms of obstruction, where the passage of food through a segment of the GI tract has become significantly impaired. While foreign bodies can be a cause of obstruction, for some 90% of the 300,000 patients presenting annually to U.S. emergency departments with obstruction, the cause is a GI tract cancer, an autoimmune disease like Crohn’s, or a prior abdominal surgery. Among patients undergoing pancreatic cancer treatment, for example, nearly half will develop obstruction at or near the outlet of the stomach–obstruction so severe as to prevent adequate nutritional intake.
At Myka Labs, we’re committed to improving outcomes for patients with challenging conditions like severe obstruction through the introduction of new catheter-based interventional systems built around innovative navigation technology. Developed through close collaboration between the leading clinicians and engineers who make up the Myka Labs core team, Myka’s interventional catheter systems are built around advanced software for real-time analysis of information streaming from miniature sensor arrays built into our catheters in combination with real-time intraoperative imaging systems like endoscopic ultrasound. For patients with malignant gastric outlet obstruction, this sensor fusion technology translates into bypassing the obstruction in a safe, streamlined procedure carried out in the endoscopy suite and without abdominal wall incisions. Beyond the GI tract, Myka’s interventional catheter systems have broad applications for a variety of rendezvous procedures that are increasingly important for patients with complex diseases involving the lung, heart and other organ systems.
Myka Labs interventional catheter systems are not available for sale in the United States.