This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to establish the feasibility of a novel minimally invasive surgery (MIS) technology platform that provides enhanced dexterity, intuitive control, and natural force feedback via a low-cost mechanical design. MIS is performed through small holes on a patient?s body to minimize patient trauma, blood loss, and recovery time, and it generally involves suturing, knot-tying, and fine dissection, all of which require enhanced dexterity in the surgical tool. Existing MIS tool technology offers a choice between affordability and functionality. Currently available low-cost mechanical (or non-robotic) tools either lack the necessary dexterity or are counter-intuitive to operate, resulting in surgeon fatigue and significant training requirements. Robotic tools provide exceptional dexterity and intuitive control, but are very expensive and beyond the reach of many healthcare providers and patients. The proposed MIS technology overcomes this affordability versus functionality tradeoff via a novel forearm mounted tool configuration and innovations in parallel-kinematic virtual center mechanisms that makes the tool input joint coincident with the surgeon?s wrist. This results in a natural and intuitive motion transmission from the surgeon?s hand to the tool end-effector via a low-cost design that does not require any sensors, actuators, or computer-control.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be realized by the development and commercialization of the proposed medical device technology will enable surgeons to perform complex MIS procedures such as colectomy and hysterectomy that require suturing, knot-tying and fine dissection with minimal training and at a fraction of the cost of surgical robots. Moreover, the proposed technology can be adapted to any style of end-effector (needle driver, forceps, graspers, scissors, retractor, etc.) and therefore serves as a platform technology for all kinds of surgeries. Given this versatility and reduced cost and training burden, the proposed will enable a wider adoption of MIS, thereby bringing its benefits to a larger portion of the society. In addition to benefits to the patient, MIS also provides healthcare cost-savings due to shorter hospital stays, less postsurgical pain medication, and reduced risk of post-operative complications. Consequently, MIS has impacted several surgical specialties, including bariatric, gastrointestinal, urologic, abdominal, gynecological, and cardiothoracic. Although millions of MIS procedures are performed in the US each year, wider adoption has been limited so far by the high cost of current surgical robots, the training burden of traditional hand-held instruments, and the complexity of certain MIS procedures.
