Plastic device aids robot-assisted heart surgery

Robot-assisted heart surgery usually requires an assistant at the operating table to help the surgeon insert the robot arm through a small incision. The assistant has to constantly make sure the surgeon has enough room to operate via the robot arm. For greater independence on the surgeon’s side, an Osaka Metropolitan University-led group has developed a device that can secure the surgical field.

Graduate School of Medicine Professor Toshihiko Shibata and Associate Professor Yosuke Takahashi worked with colleagues and small and medium-sized enterprises to develop the surgical field expansion plate made from a type of plastic used for medical implants and the aerospace industry. They tested the device during actual heart surgery.

When the polyether ether ketone plate is fastened into a circular shape, it expands to a certain size and retains its shape, securing the surgical field. The plate is 0.4 millimeters thick with varying widths and lengths available depending on the requirements of the surgery.

“This flexible yet rigid medical-grade device is simple to use and reusable,” Professor Takahashi stated. “This plate is expected to make it possible to perform robot-assisted heart surgery that is not dependent on the skill of the assistant, with further applications expected in fields such as oral surgery and otolaryngology.”

The findings were published in Innovations.

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