Toward Improving Patient Safety and Surgeon Comfort in a Synergic Robot-Assisted Eye Surgery: A Comparative Study

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Robotics
• Surgical Technology

Background:

• Robotic assistance in vitreoretinal surgery may reduce surgeon's sensory input from tool-eye interaction.
• This sensory deprivation could increase eye injury risk and alter surgical technique.
• Autonomous robot motion for safety may impede surgeon's manipulation and comfort.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate patient safety and surgeon comfort in robot-assisted eye surgery.
• To implement and evaluate control approaches for maintaining safe scleral force.
• To define quantitative metrics for assessing surgeon comfort and procedural interference.

Main Methods:

• Implemented three scleral force control approaches: two adaptive force control methods and one virtual fixture approach.
• Adaptive force control: robot actively counteracts excessive scleral force.
• Virtual fixture approach: creates virtual boundaries to guide manipulation safely.

Main Results:

• Evaluated control approaches in user studies with two experienced retinal surgeons.
• Assessed outcomes using defined safety and comfort metrics.
• Results indicate the chosen control paradigm significantly impacts the safety and comfort of robot-assisted eye surgery.

Conclusions:

• The control strategy is crucial for achieving safe and comfortable robot-assisted vitreoretinal surgery.
• Further research into optimizing human-robot interaction in surgical robotics is warranted.
• Balancing robotic safety features with surgeon control and comfort is essential.