I-Corps: An Orthopedic Surgical Robot

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发一种使用机器人技术治疗长骨骨折的设备。在美国，每年大约发生35万例股骨近端骨折和6.5万例股骨骨干骨折。目前的外科手术是手工操作的，患者在对齐股骨骨折时会遇到无数的并发症，包括难以实现准确复位、随后的骨碎片不对齐、高x射线辐射、不愈合并发症和软组织损伤。所提出的手术机器人通过减少手术时间、手术室助理人员的数量、辐射暴露、住院时间、感染风险和失血来减轻这些并发症并降低手术成本。这个项目为手术室中更多的人机协作铺平了道路。这个I-Corps项目是基于一种用于骨科手术的新型手术机器人的技术开发，特别是用于长骨骨折对齐。该机器人具有独特的正面开放式结构。这有助于在机器人内部定位腿部，并为手术操作提供了一个大的工作空间。利用自己的成像技术，机器人将驱动骨头碎片进入正确的位置，并在手术期间保持它们的位置。手术机器人的重点是治疗髋关节和股骨干的股骨骨折。与传统的股骨骨折手术不同，这项技术将使外科医生能够准确地施加大的牵引力，精确地对齐骨折的骨头，并显著减少辐射暴露。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be the development of a device for treating long bone fractures using robotic technology. Approximately 350,000 proximal femur fractures and 65,000 femur shaft fractures occur in the United States annually. Current surgical procedures are manual, and patients experience a myriad of complications to align femur fractures, including difficulty in achieving accurate reduction, subsequent malalignment of bone fragments, high x-ray radiation, nonunion complications, and soft tissue damage. The proposed surgical robot alleviates these complications and reduces the costs of surgery by decreasing procedure times, the number of assistant personnel in the operating room, radiation exposure, hospital stays, risk of infections, and blood loss. This project paves the way for more human-robot collaboration in the operating room.This I-Corps project is based on the development of technology for a novel surgical robot for orthopedic surgeries, especially for long bone fracture alignment. The robot has a unique architecture with a frontally open deign. This facilitates positioning the leg inside the robot and provides a large workspace for surgical maneuvers. Using its own imaging technology, the robot will drive the bone fragments into correct alignment and holds them in position for the duration of the surgery. The focus of the surgical robot is for treating femur fractures in the hip and femoral shaft. Unlike traditional femur fracture surgeries, this technology will enable the surgeon to accurately apply large traction forces, precisely align the fractured bone, and significantly reduce radiation exposure.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.