When White Light Is Not Enough
NBI allows ENT specialists to diagnose and treat early laryngeal cancer even more precisely and reliably. NBI is also a very accurate technology for follow-up procedures.
It is clinically proven
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that by using NBI, doctors are able to detect more suspicious lesions compared to traditional white light (WL), consequently leading to potentially reduced recurrence
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. In addition, NBI is easy to handle due to filter activation at the push of a button. And it’s cost-effective, too: All Olympus Medical imaging systems and videoscopes come with NBI as standard with no additional installations or drugs needed.
How NBI Works
Normal white light (WL) contains all colors. When WL hits the surface of a tissue, all colors are absorbed. Thus the image remains with lack of contrast. With NBI this is different.
NBI uses only blue and green light. When blue and green light hit the surface of the tissue, it is highly absorbed by hemoglobin in the blood vessels. While the blue light is absorbed by the capillaries in the mucosa, the green light reaches deeper to the submucosal area, where it is reflected by the blood vessels.
This is why NBI creates a significantly higher contrast between blood vessels and the surrounding tissue than WL. The NBI images therefore have more contrast than WL images.
For Your Patients Safety

NBI Is Clinically Proven to Diagnose More Laryngeal Cancer
Particularly when combined with a high resolution (e.g. HDTV), NBI can provide a more-detailed and higher-contrasted visualisation of blood vessels than other endoscopic procedures.1
An example from daily clinical practice illustrates this: Before a patient’s vocal sound or vocal capabilities deteriorate, NBI can be routinely used to determine early changes in the vocal folds’ vessels, which can also be quantitively and qualitatively classified.
Numerous studies, including a growing number of randomised controlled trials (RCT) and metaanalyses, highlight the clinical value of NBI, especially with regard to the detection of cancer and through examination of suspicious mucosal areas. With high image quality and contrast in full HD or ultra high definition (4K), NBI can better display the edge of surgical margin and thus may reduce the number of biopsies.
Narrow Band Imaging: Transforming the World of Endoscopy
The augmented imaging capacity of NBI enables specialists to diagnose and treat cancer more precisely and reliably. Since this technology can be harnessed for use in a number of anatomical settings, NBI represents a transformative tool that can improve the diagnostic capability of endoscopy throughout pre- intra- and postoperative stages.
Read more in our story
Save Costs with NBI
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The Experts View

How NBI Reduces Overall Costs
NBI offers superior efficacy in the early diagnosis of laryngeal cancer in pre-, intra- and postoperative stages compared to WL endoscopy. As tumors can be detected at an early stage using NBI, potential complications and the time a patient needs to spend in hospital for treatment, follow-up and treatment due to tumor recurrence is potentially less.
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NBI comes with Olympus Medical equipment at no additional cost for extra equipment, disposables or drugs.
NBI provides better definition of tumor diagnosing and staging and surgical margins in pre- and intraoperative settings. NBI is also valuable in postoperative settings due to its capacity for early detection of persistence and recurrence of early laryngeal cancer as well as metachronous tumors.
NBI can be used in doctors’ offices, outpatient clinics and ORs. By combining NBI technology with flexible scopes as well as with rigid scopes, doctors can benefit from this technology during the complete patient pathway, from diagnosis to treatment and follow-up. Also, using the same technology in all procedures makes it easier to compare relevant clinical data.

NBI – The Simple Solution
Using NBI requires no time-consuming preparation or installation prior to performing procedures in the upper aero digestive tract.
NBI is available for the latest Olympus Imaging Systems, and it can easily be switched on by a push of a button.
Key Outcomes of Using NBI
NBI allows the more precise and reliable diagnosis and treatment of early laryngeal cancer. It is clinically proven that by using NBI, doctors are able to detect more suspicious lesions compared with traditional WL endoscopy. NBI is also easy to handle and cost-effective: All Olympus Medical imaging systems and videoscopes come with NBI as standard with no additional installations or drugs needed. All this makes using NBI a safe and reliable way to improve clinical outcomes in patients with suspected cancer in the upper aerodigestive tract. 1,2,3,4,5
References
- 1.Detects 18% more true-positive laryngeal cancer lesions
- 2.Increases sensitivity by 23% in the identification of laryngeal cancer while maintaining high specificity (96%)
- 3.Reduces 85% of superficial positive margins
- 4.NBI comes with Olympus Medical equipment at no additional costs for extra equipment, disposables or drugs. It is a key function of Olympus endoscopy system, and has shown to provide clinical quality, efficiency gain and cost saving in other indications.
- 5.NBI comes with Olympus Medical equipment at no additional costs for extra equipment, disposables or drugs. It is a key function of Olympus endoscopy system, and has shown to provide clinical quality, efficiency gain and cost saving in other indications.