This tiny camera means big things when it comes to treatment of stroke patients, doctors say

A tiny camera, barely bigger than a strand of hair, has been used for the first time ever in a procedure to diagnose and treat a patient who suffered from multiple strokes.

Now, two doctors who were part of that procedure say the microangioscope developed by Vena Medical in Kitchener, Ont., could mean big things for the way stroke patients are treated.

"What I would say about this technology is it's absolutely groundbreaking," Dr. Dar Dowlatshahi said in an interview with CBC News. "A life was saved."

Dowlatshahi, a neurologist at The Ottawa Hospital, had been treating the patient after they experienced multiple strokes. But CT scans and MRIs didn't provide Dowlatshahi with conclusive evidence of what the problem was.

"We had an uncertainty and there was no current technology available to solve this uncertainty," he said. "But I was aware of this technology that was being developed."

Dowlatshahi worked with Dr. Robert Fahed, a neuroradiologist at The Ottawa Hospital, and Vena Medical to get one-time approval from Health Canada to use the tiny camera for a procedure. 

WATCH | Dr. Robert Fahed says Kitchener-made camera a game changer:

On Nov. 14, 2023, Fahed performed the procedure and the camera allowed him to look inside the blood vessels of the patient's brain.

"We have never been able to see what's inside the vessels," Fahed said.

"As soon as we used the camera and we went into that vessel, everybody in the room immediately saw what it was and determined what the lesion was," he added.

They determined the patient needed a stent, which was inserted at the same time the camera was in place and the whole procedure took about an hour.

"The camera was able to visualize all of this and the patient hasn't had a stroke since then," Fahed said. "They're extremely grateful and thankful."

Vena Medical was co-founded by two University of Waterloo engineering graduates, Michael Phillips and Philip Cooper. The two started working on it during their undergraduate degree as their fourth-year mechanical engineering design project.

They created the business through the university's start-up incubator Velocity.