A DEVICE to make lung operations safer and quicker has been invented at Papworth Hospital. The device, called the Etube, can isolate one lung from the other during surgery, so that one lung can be ventilated without the other – speeding up the process and

A DEVICE to make lung operations safer and quicker has been invented at Papworth Hospital.

The device, called the Etube, can isolate one lung from the other during surgery, so that one lung can be ventilated without the other - speeding up the process and preventing cross infection.

It is expected to help save lives during emergency operations, including those on members of the armed forces.

The Etube was invented by Dr Sunit Ghosh, a consultant anaesthetist at the hospital, with the help of Health Enterprise East (HEE), also based at Papworth Hospital.

HEE senior innovation manager, Stuart Thomson, said: "It is hoped this double lumen tube will be very helpful in general surgical procedures requiring access to structures in the chest and also in situations where rapid lung isolation is required such as in A&E or the armed forces."

The commercial partner is P3 Medical Ltd.

Papworth has achieved a series of firsts - the UK's first successful heart transplant was carried out there in 1979.