A robot performs its first laparoscopic surgery without human help

"Our results show that we can automate one of the most complex and delicate tasks of surgery: the reconnection of the two ends of a intestine.The star carried out the procedure in four animals and he produced significantly better results than humans performing the same procedure, "said the main author Axel Krieger, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Whiting School of Engineering by Johns Hopkins.

The excess robot in intestinal anastomosis, a procedure which requires a high level of repetitive movement and precision.Connecting the two ends of an intestine is undoubtedly the most difficult step of gastrointestinal surgery, requiring that a surgeon suture with great precision and coherence.Even the slightest tremor or a poorly placed point can lead to a leak that may have catastrophic complications for the patient.

In collaboration with collaborators from the Children’s National Hospital of Washington, DC and Jin Kang, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Johns Hopkins, Krieger helped to create the robot, a system guided by the vision designed specifically to suture soft tissue.Their current iteration advances a 2016 model which accurately repaired the intestines of a pork, but required a great incision to access the intestine and more advice from humans.

The team has equipped the star with new features for increased autonomy and better surgical precision, including specialized suture tools and advanced imaging systems that provide more precise visualizations of the surgical field.

Surgery of soft tissue is particularly difficult for robots because of its unpredictability, forcing them to adapt quickly to manage unexpected obstacles, said Krieger.The star has a new control system that can adjust the surgical plan in real time, as a human surgeon would do.

"What makes the star special is that it is the first robotic system to plan, adapt and execute a surgical plan in soft tissues with minimal human intervention," said Krieger.

A three -dimensional endoscope based on structural light and a monitoring algorithm based on automatic learning developed by Kang and its students guide Star."We believe that an advanced artificial vision system in three dimensions is essential to make smart and safer smart surgical robots," Kang said.

While the medical field evolves towards more laparoscopic approaches for surgeries, it will be important to have an automated robotic system designed for such procedures, said Krieger.

"Robotic anastomosis is a way to ensure that surgical tasks that require high precision and repeatability can be carried out with more accuracy and precision in each patient, regardless of the skills of the surgeon," said Krieger."We hypothesize that this will result in a democratized surgical approach to patient care with more predictable and coherent results for patients.»»

The Johns Hopkins team also included Hamed Saeidi, Justin D.Opefermann, Michael Kam, Shuwen Wei and Simon Leonard.Michael H.Hsieh, Director of Transitional Urology at the National Children's Hospital, also contributed to research.

Work was supported by the National Institute for Biomedical Imagery and Bio-Engineering of the National Institutes of Health under the price numbers 1R01EB020610 and R21EB024707.