The first clinical use of domestically produced Chinese minimally invasive surgical robot system "Micro Hand S"

Robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has shown tremendous advances over the traditional technique. However, current commercialized systems are complicated and huge, which vastly raises system cost and requirements for operation room. Central South University in collaboration with Tianjin University developed one domestically produced Chinese minimally invasive surgical (MIS) robot system "Micro Hand S" in 2013. Recently, our center launched the first clinical trials of the robot, including one case of robotic gastric perforation repair and two cases of robotic appendectomy.

In march 2014, one patient with gastric perforation and two patients with acute appendicitis who underwent robotic perforation repair and robotic appendectomy respectively. In these procedures, we firstly use "Micro Hand S" robot system. All of the patients were followed for 3 months, Total robotic operation time, Intra-operative blood loss and pre- and postoperative changes in routine blood test, liver function test, renal function test and major complications were recorded.

"Micro Hand S" succeeded in accomplishing operations. No intraoperative complications or technical problems were encountered. At a three-month follow-up, patients were found to be progressing well, without evidence of adverse reactions.

The domestic surgical robot system which was verified as safe and effective through these trials. The proposed design method is an effective way to solve some of drawbacks that exist in the former generations of the da Vinci surgical system.