An Automatic Suturing Machine for Intestinal Anastomosis: Advantages Compared With Hand-Suturing Technique.

Area of Science:

• Surgical Technology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Gastrointestinal Surgery

Background:

• Intestinal anastomosis is a critical surgical procedure.
• Current methods like stapling and hand suturing have limitations.
• A novel automatic suturing machine was developed to address these limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and fabricate an automatic suturing machine for intestinal anastomosis.
• To evaluate the machine's capability in creating uniform sutures.
• To test the hypothesis that uniform suturing enhances mechanical strength.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of an automatic suturing machine with needle-driving, thread control, and linear mechanisms.
• In vitro tensile tests on 90 human intestine specimens.
• Comparison of manual suturing by an expert surgeon versus automatic suturing using various configurations (h7 d6 optimal).

Main Results:

• The automatic machine produced uniform suturing patterns, independent of surgeon skill.
• The optimal suturing pattern (h7 d6) was consistent between manual and automatic methods.
• Automatic suturing resulted in significantly greater maximum breaking strength (P < .001) compared to manual suturing.

Conclusions:

• The developed automatic suturing machine is effective for intestinal anastomosis.
• Uniform suturing achieved by the machine significantly enhances mechanical strength.
• This technology offers a promising advancement over traditional suturing techniques.