A Concentric Tube Robot System for Rigid Bronchoscopy: A Feasibility Study on Central Airway Obstruction Removal.

In this study, we used an ex vivo ovine airway model to demonstrate the ability of a physician using the robotic system to efficiently remove tissue and restore the airway. Pre- and post-operative CT scans showed that the robot was able to reduce the degree of airway obstruction stenosis from 75 to 14% on average for five CAO resections performed in an ex vivo animal model. Using cadaver experiments, we demonstrated the potential of the robotic system to substantially reduce the intraoperative forces applied to the patient's head and neck (from 80.6 to 4.1 N). These preliminary results illustrate that CAO removal is feasible with our new rigid bronchoscopy robot system, and that this approach has the potential to reduce forces applied to the patient due to bronchoscope angulation, and thereby reduce the risk of complications encountered during CAO surgery. PMID: 31342337 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Annals of Biomedical Engineering - Category: Biomedical Engineering Authors: Tags: Ann Biomed Eng Source Type: research