Image guided robotics for cardiac surgery

Place: Large lecture room

Affiliation: Philips Research North America. Cambridge, MA, USA.

With the recent advancement in intracardiac therapies, navigation and steering of medical devices in moving environments have become an important research topic. In this talk, I will present results of multi-year collaboration between Philips research and Johns Hopkins University Laboratory for Computational Sensing + Robotics in area of flexible robotics and Ultrasound guidance. We propose an image guided robotic system and a corresponding minimally invasive surgical approach. The system employs a dexterous robotic capture device that can maneuver inside the heart through a small incision. Visualization and guidance within the otherwise occluded internal regions are provided by 3D transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), an emerging form of intraoperative medical imaging used in interventions such as cardiac valve repair and device implantation. A robotic approach, as opposed to a manual procedure using rigid instruments, is motivated by the various challenges inherent in minimally invasive surgery, which arise from attempts to perform skilled surgical tasks through small incisions without direct vision. Challenges include reduced dexterity, constrained workspace, limited visualization, and difficult hand-eye coordination, which ultimately lead to poor manipulability. A dexterous robotic end effector with real-time image guidance can help overcome these challenges and potentially improve surgical performance.

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