Improved surgical instruments without coupled motion used in minimally invasive surgery

Area of Science:

• Robotics in Surgery
• Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS)
• Surgical Instrument Design

Background:

• Robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (MIS) instruments feature wrists for enhanced flexibility.
• A critical limitation of current MIS instruments is the coupled motion between the wrist and end-effector, hindering precise control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop novel surgical instruments that eliminate coupled motion between the wrist and end-effector.
• To improve the dexterity and control of instruments used in robot-assisted MIS.

Main Methods:

• Three distinct methods were proposed to decouple wrist and end-effector motion.
• The efficacy of each method was evaluated based on its decoupled motion characteristics.
• The most effective method was utilized to design four prototype surgical instruments.

Main Results:

• The developed surgical instruments successfully achieved decoupled motion, addressing the primary design challenge.
• Experimental validation, including gallbladder and kidney removal procedures, demonstrated excellent performance.
• The effectiveness of the decoupled surgical instruments was conclusively validated.

Conclusions:

• Novel surgical instruments with decoupled motion have been successfully developed.
• These instruments offer significant improvements for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery.
• The developed technology shows considerable promise for future clinical applications in MIS.