Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/15/curious-robotic-syringe-in-a-p.html
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That gas inflates the balloon, and the pressure of the inflating balloon pushes a dissolvable microneedle filled with a drug of choice into the wall of the intestines.
Human intestines lack sharp pain receptors, so the micro-shot is painless.
Really? so much for “Searing gas pain land”
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two chemicals trapped on either side of the pinch point to mix and produce carbon dioxide.
Don’t they know that’s a greenhouse gas? Why do they hate polar bears?
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Brainstorming for these types of swallowed solutions has to be fun!
“Ok, what else could we fit in the capsule?”
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“OK, what other food can we hide the capsule in?”
I recall hearing about research on an inflatable balloon at the end of a catheter for angioplasty or stent installation, that, when inflated, poked a tiny needle into the artery to inject a drug that would help keep the artery open.
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What is the use case for this device 
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Assassination?
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Drugs that can’t make it through the stomach due to the highly acidic conditions, but need to be delivered to the GI tract. It’s a way to take it (efficiently) orally instead of (inefficiently) through IV.
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I can vouch that this is, at least mostly, a current practice. Family friend had the catheter enclosing the camera and balloons inserted into his arm directly to his heart. I think the baloons were inflated to bust the plaque blocking certain arteries? Or to widen the artery for the stint maybe.
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You guys are reminding of a time when I completely and loudly cursed out a nurse while she was removing my catheter post op a few years ago. I think I scared her. I apologized after and we were cool but, damn, damn that was unpleasant.
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Common practice for really narrow stenoses (narrowings of the artery) is to go in with a balloon, open it up, then go in with the stent to hold it open.
There are also some crazy balloons out there. There’s one called a cutting balloon that has tiny razor blades on it, that is used for tough, calcified lesions that regular angioplasty balloons can’t get open.
https://image3.slideserve.com/6870832/cutting-balloon1-n.jpg
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Was that a catheter in a blood vessel or a catheter . . . somewhere else?
Somewhere else catheters are definitely unpleasant.
Double espresso please.
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