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经被广泛接受，特别是在腹腔镜手术中，现在外科医生可以通过腹腔镜的直接视觉反馈远程操作手臂来解剖，缝合，绑扎，并在心脏，胸部和腹部空间进行复杂的手术。然而，目前的机器人技术并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，而且机器人并不是为神经外科医生通常需要做的任务而设计的。这项拨款旨在开发一种新型的“微型机器人”，将机器人技术和微创技术的优势引入神经外科。

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.