Metal MEMS tools for beating-heart tissue removal

Abstract

A novel robotic tool is proposed to enable the surgical removal of tissue from inside the beating heart. The tool is manufactured using a unique metal MEMS process that provides the means to fabricate fully assembled devices that incorporate micron-scale features in a millimeter scale tool. The tool is integrated with a steerable curved concentric tube robot that can enter the heart through the vasculature. Incorporating both irrigation and aspiration, the tissue removal system is capable of extracting substantial amounts of tissue under teleoperated control by first morselizing it and then transporting the debris out of the heart through the lumen of the robot. Tool design and robotic integration are described and ex vivo experimental results are presented.

A Framework for Integrating Real-Time MRI With Robot Control: Application to Simulated Transapical Cardiac Interventions

“…This would prove beneficial especially in case of complex clinical paradigms that requires operator to maneuver a robot inside a highly dynamic AoP. As an example of these clinical paradigms are the image-guided procedures on the beating heart, such as electrophysiology [3], tissue removal [7], valvuloplasties [8], and angioplasties [9]. These clinical paradigms are the focus of our work.…”

Planning stable paths for concentric tube robots

“…An alternative approach first suggested in [5] that was successfully used for beating-heart intracardiac surgery [8], [9] utilizes the following two design principles to reduce the number of design parameters while also approximately decoupling the motion of each robot section from the others: 1) Telescoping dominant stiffness: To produce localized shape changes with respect to arc length, the tube lengths are selected to produce telescoping robot architectures. Furthermore, the outer/proximal tubes possess a composite bending stiffness that dominates the stiffness of the inner/distal tubes, leading to approximate kinematic decoupling between each section and its proximal sections.…”

“…Substantial research has been performed on modeling and control of concentric tube robots [5]- [9], and designs have been proposed for neurosurgery [10], lung procedures [11], and intracardiac beating heart surgery [8], [9], with a recent in vivo patent foramen ovale closure in swine [9].…”

Design of a smart 3D-printed wristed robotic surgical instrument with embedded force sensing and modularity

“…Its design and production could have only been achieved through the use of additive manufacturing, given the complexity of the components. Another example originated from the surgical field is a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) for the removal of heart tissue, where the components were generated with lithography and pre-assembled components with moving parts were produced [7]. Rapid prototyping finds its integral deployment when considerations about its main principles and advantages are implemented during the design phase.…”