Researchers at Children’s National Health System used a biocompatible near-infrared 3-D tracking system to guide the suturing for the first smart tissue autonomous robot (STAR) surgery.
A study detailing the findings was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.
During soft-tissue surgery, the target tissue can deform and become occluded by blood and other tissue, which makes it hard to distinguish it from the surrounding tissue. Having the ability to track tools and tissue in the surgical setting can help improve many applications for manual and robotic surgery.
The STAR system consists of small biocompatible near-infrared fluorescent markers with a fused plenoptic and near-infrared camera tracking system. It’s able to overcome blood and tissue occlusion because the NIR light can penetrate deeper than visual light.
The study investigated the feasibility of the system using live subjects. The findings demonstrated that the system guides suturing accurately and consistently, which helps reduce leakage and can improve surgical outcomes.
The researcher team also conducted robot experiments to compare the STAR system's tracking accuracies to conventional optical tracking methods. The system had tracking accuracies of 1.61 millimeters that degraded to only 1.71 millimeters when the markers were covered in blood and tissue.
"This work describes the 'super human eyes' and a bit of 'intelligence' of our STAR robotic system, making tasks such as soft tissue surgery on live subjects possible," Dr. Peter C. Kim, VP and associate surgeon-in-chief of Children’s National Health System’s Sheikh Zayed Institute, said in a statement.
Going forward, Kim and his team will continue to integrate and evaluate the STAR system in image-guided medical interventions.
