1,045 research outputs found
Best Oral Presentation Award
No full textIl paper “A Novel Surgical Robotic Platform Minimizing Access Trauma” di T. Ranzani, C. Di Natali, M. Simi, A. Menciassi, P. Dario, P. Valdastri presentato al 4th Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics 19-20 June, 2011 the Royal Society, London, UK, è stato premiato con il “Best Oral Presentation” Award
A novel robotic platform for laser-assisted transurethral surgery of the prostate
No full textBenign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common pathology afflicting ageing men. The gold standard for the surgical treatment of BPH is transurethral resection of the prostate. The laser-assisted transurethral surgical treatment of BPH is recently emerging as a valid clinical alternative. Despite this, there are still some issues that hinder the outcome of laser surgery, e.g., distal dexterity is strongly reduced by the current endoscopic instrumentation and contact between laser and prostatic tissue cannot be monitored and optimized. This paper presents a novel robotic platform for laser-assisted transurethral surgery of BPH. The system, designed to be compatible with the traditional endoscopic instrumentation, is composed of a catheter-like robot provided with a fiber optic-based sensing system and a cable-driven actuation mechanism. The sensing system allows contact monitoring between the laser and the hypertrophic tissue. The actuation mechanism allows steering of the laser fiber inside the prostatic urethra of the patient, when contact must be reached. The design of the proposed robotic platform along with its preliminary testing and evaluation is presented in this paper. The actuation mechanism is tested in in vitro experiments to prove laser steering performances according to the clinical requirements. The sensing system is calibrated in experiments aimed to evaluate the capability of discriminating the contact forces, between the laser tip and the prostatic tissue, from the pulling forces exerted on the cables, during laser steering. These results have been validated demonstrating the robot's capability of detecting sub-Newton contact forces even in combination with actuation
Soft robots in surgery
No full textMinimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) represents the gold standard in the majority of abdominal operations, although some fundamental limitations are still present and are far to be really addressed despite emerging robotic solutions. Flexible endoscopes can exploit their high flexibility to reach the surgical target while being inserted remotely or by a natural orifice. However endoscopes may lack stability that rigid tools normally provide. Novel surgical instrumentation is being developed in order to provide higher dexterity and flexibility to the surgeon, but unlike traditional surgical manipulators, here we report the approach followed in the development of the STIFF-FLOP manipulator. The main idea is based on the exploitation of soft materials to be intrinsically flexible and safe while combining different fluidic actuation technologies to enable high dexterity and selective stiffness variability. In this chapter, the functional evolution of the robot is reported highlighting advantages and drawbacks that steered the development of a manipulator which in the end demonstrated to be effective in overcoming mobility limitations experienced with standard rigid tools
A Novel Childbirth Simulator for Real-Time Monitoring of Fetal Head During the Active Phase of the Labor
No full textA correct evaluation of the fetus progress into the birth canal during labor is often a complicated task, but it is of fundamental importance for a proper delivery management. Indeed, incorrect assessment of fetal presentation, position and station could lead to severe complications for both the fetus and the mother. Currently, fetus progress assessment during the delivery phase is still performed in the same way of last centuries, namely with a manual vaginal exploration assessed only using two fingers (index and medium fingers). This evaluation is therefore strongly subjective and dependent on clinical experience of the medical doctor; thus, reproducibility is very limited. In this framework, simulation-based training is a valuable instrument for obstetrics and gynecologists learning process, thus for evaluating and improving their abilities. In this work, we introduce a novel integrated childbirth platform which offers a real-time monitoring of fetal head during the active phase of labor. A real-time evaluation of fetal head presentation, position and station is provided, along with a 3D virtual visualization of the childbirth simulation. This kind of platform was conceived as a valid instrument for gynecological teaching and training. Preliminary results demonstrated its usefulness as an instrument for training in obstetrics and gynecology
DESIGN, REALIZATION AND PRELIMINARY VALIDATION OF A HIGH-FIDELITY BIOINSPIRED LUNGS SIMULATOR
No full textA cationic porphyrin in a micellar medium: preliminary analysis of the system characteristics and metal extraction ability
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