Intuitive is Giving Thoracic Surgeons Something to Talk About

Results from the first clinical study assessing the safety and performance of Intuitive Surgical's new flexible robotics platform were released this week at the CHEST annual meeting. The findings suggest that the surgical platform is both safe, and provides a practical approach for sampling lung tissue. The study was carried out at Australia’s Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital where the platform was used on 30 different patients to evaluate both the safety and feasibility of the surgical system. The new system is a catheter-based technology that was designed to access some of the more difficult-to-reach areas of the body through natural openings, like the mouth. In this specific study, doctors used the platform to access the lungs to capture tissue samples for early lung cancer diagnosis. When engaging in the study, researchers targeted nodules within the lungs that were smaller than two centimeters in diameter — areas that are beyond the reach of a human surgeon. In 29 out of 30 cases, the pre-planned target area was not only reached, but a suitable sample was extracted for assessment. In every case the procedure was carried out without complication, and no device-related adverse events were reported. The study also showed that the robotic-assisted platform provides a flexible biopsy needle that was designed to accommodate a tight bend radius to help doctors navigate small spaces and reach areas of the body that were previously not accessible. The study indicated tha...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: R & D Source Type: news