US EditionTiny magnet powered robots could one day do brain surgery
- Researchers at the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children in Canada, led by Eric Diller, developed a set of approximately 3mm diameter, magnet-driven micro-robotic surgical tools for potential use in neurosurgery, as published in Science Robotics.
- Traditional robotic surgical tools, around 8mm in diameter, are typically powered by cables connected to electric motors and controlled by pulleys, which can be prone to weakness and friction, posing challenges for scaling down to the smaller sizes required for delicate neurosurgery.
- The new robotic system consists of tiny tools, including grippers, scalpels, and forceps, which are powered by external magnetic fields manipulated by a coil table containing electromagnetic coils, allowing the tools to grip, pull, or cut tissue.
- Pre-Clinical trials, involving tests with tofu and raspberry inside a brain model, demonstrated that the magnetic scalpel could make consistent and narrow cuts with an average width of 0.3-0.4mm, while the grippers successfully picked up targets 76% of the time, outperforming traditional hand tools which produced cuts ranging from 0.6 to 2.1mm.
- While Changyan He expressed excitement about the potential for minimally invasive neurosurgical tools and was surprised by the tools' performance, the team aims to refine the system for compatibility with hospital operating rooms and imaging systems like fluoroscopy, acknowledging that there is still a long way to go before this technology can help patients, as it can take years or even decades to develop surgical robots.
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Tiny magnet powered robots could one day do brain surgery
Most brain surgery requires doctors to remove part of the skull to access hard-to-reach areas or tumours. It’s invasive, risky, and it takes a long time for the patient to recover. We have developed new, tiny robotic surgical tools that may let surgeons perform “keyhole surgery” on the brain. Despite their small size, our tools can mimic the full range of motion of a surgeon’s wrist, creating new possibilities for less-invasive brain surgery. Ro…
·Washington, United States
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