The MUSA eyesurgery robot's first human trials

MUSA reaches the next step: a new study in Nature Communications reports the "first-in-human study of robot-assisted supermicrosurgery using a dedicated microsurgical robotic platform. A prospective randomized pilot study is conducted comparing robot-assisted and manual supermicrosurgical lymphatico-venous anastomosis (LVA) in treating breast cancer-related lymphedema. We evaluate patient outcome at 1 and 3 months post surgery, duration of the surgery, and quality of the anastomosis. At 3 months, patient outcome improves. Furthermore, a steep decline in duration of time required to complete the anastomosis is observed in the robot-assisted group (33–16 min). Here, we report the feasibility of robot-assisted supermicrosurgical anastomosis in LVA, indicating promising results for the future of reconstructive supermicrosurgery."

"In total, 14 anastomoses were completed using robot assistance (n = 8 patients, mean 1.75 ± 0.5, range 1–2) and 26 anastomoses were performed manually (n = 12 patients, mean 2.1 ± 0.7, range 1–4). All completed anastomoses were patent. […] Mean (±SD) duration and range of anastomosis in the robot-assisted group compared with the manual group was significantly different: 25 ± 6 min, range 16–33 min and 9 ± 6 min, range 4–36 min, respectively (p < 0.001). However, a steep decrease in duration of time required to complete the anastomosis was observed in the robot-assisted group (see Supplementary Fig. 1). Mean total time of the full surgical procedure accounted 81 min for the manual group and 115 min for the robot-assisted group.

Mean patients’ convenience during the procedure in the robot-assisted group was 8.0 (±2.0, range 4–10) and 8.6 (±1.1, range 7–10) in the manual group. Surgeons’ satisfaction of the procedure was 3.1 (±0.6, range 2–4) in the robot-assisted group and 3.8 (±0,8, range 2–5) in the manual group."

Mirrors: Medgadget, Discovery Magazine, Tech review, Gizmodo