Date:30/08/16

Hi-tech system can slither down a patient's throat and perform surgery

A snake-like robot could soon assist surgeons in the operating room. The flexible system is best suited for minimally invasive surgeries, and can slither down a patient’s throat to reach typically hard to access areas. Equipped with a high-definition camera and a joystick controller, the Flex Robotic System allows surgeons to navigate non-linear regions of the anatomy and avoid obstacles.
 
The robotic OR assistant was first thought up in 2004 by Howie Choset, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute and co-founder of Medrobotics. Choset joined forces with Marco Zenati, then at the University of Pittsburgh, and CMU postdoc Alon Wolf, and together they co-founded Medrobotics the following year. Now, the firm says it’s the world’s first commercially available robot of its kind.
 
The Flex Robotic System contains inner and outer mechanisms to optimize its capabilities. The outer mechanism can be steered by the surgeon, and the inner component then follows to create a stable surgical platform for the operation, a video on the technology explains. This unique design allows surgeons to ‘see more, reach more, treat more,’ according to the firm.
 
‘The Flex Robotic System offers surgeons the unique ability to define a non-linear path to a surgical site and achieve exposure that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with minimally invasive straight approaches,’ the video explains. ‘With the Medrobotics Flex Robotic System, the surgeon is able to define a path around anatomy and obtain the desired access and visualization of the surgical target.’
 
The robotic assistant is steered using a joystick-like controller, and the video demonstrates how this can be used to guide the device in through the mouth and down the throat to access hard to reach locations in the body.
 
Based on its design, the firm says its controls are ‘instinctive,’ minimizing the learning curve and allowing for easy integration into the operating room. The technology could provide a more effective way of treating diseases through minimally invasive surgeries, and the firm has so far raised over $130 million in funding primarily from anonymous private investors, Bloomberg reports.
 
‘The Flex Robotic System is the first and only soft tissue soft tissue surgical robotic system designed to keep the surgeon near the patient throughout the procedure,’ the video explains. ‘Utilizing HD visualization, surgeons can manoeuvre around structures that may be difficult or impossible to navigate with line of sight based surgical instruments.’

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