• 9/13/2005
  • Cambridge, MA
  • press release
  • PRNewswire (www.prnewswire.com)

OmniGuide, Inc. announced today the successful completion of the first three head and neck surgeries in patients using the OmniGuide Fiber, a revolutionary hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber for delivery of CO2 laser energy. The procedures were performed by Dr. Randal Weber, the Chairman of the Department of Head & Neck Surgery and by Dr. Chris Holsinger, Attending Surgeon at the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

OmniGuide Fibers enhance existing surgical procedures and enable new minimally invasive treatments that cannot be performed with existing medical tools. The fiber, enabling flexible delivery of a CO2 laser, was used to remove a vocal cord pre-cancerous lesion, to ablate vocal cord carcinoma in- situ (stage 0 cancer), and to perform a base of tongue biopsy on a cancer patient. The laryngeal cases required very delicate ablation and removal of a thin mucosal layer while the biopsy case required quick cutting through thick tissue. In all cases the fiber was used through a rigid laryngoscope and manipulated by use of a malleable hand-piece.

Dr. Weber said: “We were very pleased with the performance of the fibers and the superb tissue interaction, which allowed very efficient, safe, and precise application. We anticipate that the OmniGuide Fiber will serve as a very useful tool in our specialty in both laryngeal and oral cavity cases, and we will publish the results on these first cases as soon as possible.” Dr. Holsinger added: “When compared to our standard techniques, the fiber enabled much easier access in cases which were very difficult to visualize. By doing so, procedure time was shortened substantially. Moreover, the laser causes less tissue trauma and less inflammation when compared to electrocautery, resulting in less pain and better healing.”

Dr. Steve Sheng, OmniGuide’s President and CEO commented: “The successful completion of these surgeries demonstrates the tremendous benefit our fibers can offer for head & neck surgery. Our fibers will reduce procedure time, improve post operative healing, and allow easy access to otherwise inaccessible areas. Combined with the high degree of CO2 laser experience found in head & neck surgery, we are certain that the OmniGuide Fiber will become the tool of choice for many head & neck surgeons with very rapid adoption. We are fortunate to be working with the key thought leaders in this field and expect to perform numerous additional cases at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in the near future, broadening the scope and use of our breakthrough technology.”

Yoel Fink, John Joannopoulos and Edwin Thomas, all faculty members at MIT, and Uri Kolodny, founded OmniGuide in May 2000, in order to commercialize patented research conducted at MIT on omni-directional reflectors. Based in Cambridge MA, where its corporate offices and labs are located, OmniGuide has an exclusive license from MIT on omni-directional reflectors and OmniGuide Fibers.