Robot-assisted robot-assisted microsurgery

 

"The first five completely robot-supported microsurgical operations on humans was performed by a team led by scientists Dr. Maximilian Kückelhaus and Prof. Tobias Hirsch from the Centre for Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Münster. The physicians used an innovative operating method in which a new type of operations robot, designed especially for microsurgery, is networked with a robotic microscope. This approach makes it possible for the operating surgeon to be completely taken out of the operating area. The use of robots for clinical research is undertaken in collaboration with Münster University Hospital and Hornheide Specialist Clinic.

The experts have been using this method for a good two months. So far, five operations have been successfully performed, with many more set to follow. "This new method for operations enables us to work with a much higher degree of delicacy and precision than is possible with conventional operating techniques," says Maximilian Kückelhaus. "As a result, less tissue is destroyed and patients recover faster."

The specialists use the method, for example, on patients with breast cancer who need complex breast reconstructions, or after accidents in which patients need tissue transplants. With the aid of the robot and the robotic microscope, the microsurgeons can join the finest anatomical structures such as blood vessels, nerves or lymphatic vessels, which often have a diameter of only 0.3 millimeters.

During the operation, the robot—the so-called Symani Surgical System—adopts human hand movements via an electromagnetic field and joysticks. The robot carries out the operating surgeon's movements, reduced in size by up to 20 times, via tiny instruments and, in doing so, completely eliminates any shaking present in (human) hands.

A robotic microscope is connected to the operation robot, and this microscope shows the area being operated on via a 3D Augmented Reality Headset with two high-resolution monitors. This headset contains a binoculars that are able to combine the real world with virtual information. In this way, the surgeon's head movements can be recorded and transferred to the robot, making even complicated viewing angles possible on the area being operated on. In addition, the operating surgeon can access a variety of menus and perform functions with the robot without using his or her hands.

The new technology also has the advantage that operating surgeons can adopt a relaxed posture—whereas they otherwise have to perform operations in a strenuous posture over a period of several hours."

Source: Medical Xpress