Micro-Robotics for Minimally-Invasive Neurosurgery

描述（由申请人提供）：机器人技术在外科手术中已被广泛接受，特别是在腹腔镜手术中，外科医生现在可以通过腹腔镜的直接视觉反馈远程操纵手臂，在心脏、胸腔和腹腔内进行解剖、缝合、打结和执行复杂手术。然而，目前的机器人技术不适合神经外科显微手术，因为机器人需要很大的工作空间，而且机器人不是为神经外科医生通常需要做的任务而设计的。这项资助旨在开发一种新的“微型机器人”，将机器人技术和微创技术的优势带到神经外科。 第二阶段将继续开发可操纵的微型机器人，这些机器人可以由神经外科医生通过一些入口点准确地引导到大脑中的位置。在第一阶段，微型机器人原型成功地进行了测试，并确定了神经外科微型机器人的要求。在第II阶段，将开发原型并使用体模进行测试，以解决这些要求的关键子集：（1）足够的小型化和自由度，以符合五个设想的神经外科通道，（2）对周围组织的热暴露安全水平，以及（3）能够沿着神经外科通道推进或撤回，而不会与周围组织发生碰撞。该项目的最终研究将包括动物研究，其中项目团队的神经外科医生将使用原型导航五个预定义的神经外科走廊。这是证明所设想的微型机器人在神经外科中的价值的必要的关键步骤。Infoscitex的工程团队和波士顿儿童医院的神经外科临床团队在整个项目中的密切合作将确保设计和测试朝着大多数临床实用的方向发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Robotics has found a well accepted role in surgical procedures, particularly in laparoscopic procedures where arms can now be used with remote manipulation by a surgeon with direct visual feedback from the laparoscope to dissect, suture, tie, and perform complex procedures in the cardiac, thoracic, and abdominal spaces. Current robotic technology, however, is unsuitable for neurosurgical microsurgery, because of the large working space that is required for the robots, and the fact that the robots were not designed for the tasks that neurosurgeons normally need to do. This grant aims to develop a new class of "micro-robots" to bring the advantages of robotics and minimally-invasive techniques to neurosurgery. Phase II will continue development of steerable micro-robots that could be accurately directed by the neurosurgeon to locations in the brain via a number of entry points. During Phase I, micro-robot prototypes were successfully tested, and requirements for neurosurgical micro-robots were identified. In Phase II, prototypes will be developed and tested with phantoms to address a critical subset of these requirements: (1) sufficient miniaturization and degrees of freedom to allow conformance to five envisioned neurosurgical corridors, (2) safe levels of heat exposure to surrounding tissue, and (3) ability to advance or withdraw along neurosurgical corridors without colliding with surrounding tissue. The final study of the project will include animal studies, in which neurosurgeons on the project team will employ prototypes to navigate five pre-defined neurosurgical corridors. This is a necessary critical step to proving the value of the envisioned micro-robots in neurosurgery. Close collaboration throughout the project between the engineering team at Infoscitex and the neurosurgical clinical team at Children's Hospital Boston, will ensure that the design and testing move in the direction of most clinical utility.