Enabling Medical Robotics for the Next Generation

of Minimally Invasive Procedures

Howie Choset

Robotics Institute                      

Carnegie Mellon University

Marco Zenati, M.D.

Department of Surgery

University of Pittsburgh

Abstract:

Minimally invasive surgery is the greatest advance to the art and science of surgery since Lister introduced antiseptic techniques 150 years ago. By  accessing anatomical targets through a small incision with specialized tools, the clinical benefits to patients are profound: less soft tissue disruption, reduced pain, faster healing and recovery, and fewer complications. However, despite their proven track record, minimally invasive devices are still quite limited in that they are rigid or only reach superficial regions in the body. One reason for this is that they are mechanical, lacking true computational capabilities that we have enjoyed in other fields. By developing and combining the mechanical and computational, the robotics field can make true advances to all medical interventions.

        Already, we have seen robotics enter the operating room. Without a doubt, the da Vinci™ surgical robot by Intuitive Surgical represents the greatest success in medical robotics with hundreds of systems installed throughout the world. Ultimately, however, we envision future medical robots will be ubiquitous and so well integrated into the OR that they will not be recognizable by today’s standards of what we call a robot. We will see everyday tools become robotic, such as Hansen Medical’s Sensei™ Robotic Catheter System. The Hansen device is just the beginning, especially when one considers navigating outside the luminal spaces.

        In this talk, we will describe a surgical snake robot called the CardioARMTM which was invented at Carnegie Mellon and is undergoing commercial development by a new startup called Cardiorobotics, co-located in Pittsburgh, PA and Newport, RI. The CardioARM has 102 degrees of freedom and is capable of following a curve in three dimensions. We have performed several experiments on live pigs and human cadavers to establish the efficacy of the CardioARM for minimally invasive cardiac surgery. In addition to describing the technology, we will also talk about our “story” which led us to start Cardiorobotics and ultimately to a commercial product.

References:

1. 1.“Highly Articulated Robotic Surgical System for Minimally Invasive Surgery.” Ota T, Degani A, Schwartzman D, Zubiate B, McGarvey J, Choset H, Zenati MA. Ann Thorac Surg, 2009.
   

2. 2.“A Novel Highly Articulated Robotic Surgical System for Cardiac Ablation.” Takeyoshi Ota, MD, PhD, Amir Degani, David Schwartzman, Brett Zubiate, Jeremy McGarvey, Howie Choset, and Marco A. Zenati. International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 20th - 24th August, 2008.
   

3. 3.“Highly Articulated Robotic Probe for Minimally Invasive Surgery,” Amir Degani, Howie Choset , Marco Zenati, Take Ota  and Brett Zubiatte.  International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 20th - 24th August, 2008.
   

4. 4.“Epicardial Atrial Ablation Using a Novel Highly Articulated Robotic Probe through a Subxiphoid Approach,” T. Ota, A. Degani, A. Wolf, H. Choset, and M. Zenati. Am J Cardiol 2006; 98(8):248M.
   

CardioARM articulating around a model of a heart