UK-based CMR Surgical announces it has raised $100 million from investors. The money will be used to market the surgical robot Versius. This surgical robot is suitable for a variety of minimally invasive procedures and can operate through an opening as small as 5 mm.
Versius is a new surgical robot inspired by the human arm. The robot is aimed at minimally invasive surgery, a form of surgery that involves operating through small incisions in the body. Due to the small size of these incisions, patients recover faster after surgery and experience less pain. Since patients can leave the hospital sooner, minimally invasive surgery also reduces healthcare costs.
Limited deployment
However, minimally invasive surgery is very complex, which is partly due to the complexity of operating robots. This limits the usability of this surgical technique. Mark Slack, head of gynaecology at the UK's Addenbrooke's Hospital and co-founder of CMR Surgical, explains to The Guardian that despite the benefits of minimally invasive surgery, the vast majority of patients are still operated on traditionally. This is mainly because only a limited number of surgeons have the appropriate knowledge and skills to work with surgical robots.
With Versius, CMR Surgical aims to make minimally invasive surgery more accessible by simplifying the use of the operating robot. The surgical robot is specifically designed to enable surgeons to perform virtually all existing minimally invasive surgeries without having to change their operating procedures. Because surgeons can continue to rely on their familiar working methods, this significantly shortens the training required to work with the robot. This makes it possible to train more surgeons to use operating robots, allowing minimally invasive surgery to be offered to patients on a much wider scale.
Robotic arms with four-axis joint
The ability to perform virtually all existing minimally invasive surgeries with the robot is largely due to the robot's arms. These arms are equipped with a four-axis joint and are therefore able to mimic the flexibility of the human wrist. This allows the robot to perform operations in the same way as a surgeon. For example, it can use exactly the same incision and the orientation of medical instruments is identical to that in traditional surgery. Versius measures the exact position of its three robotic arms and their force thousands of times a second to ensure that patient safety is not compromised.
Flexibility is also reflected in the rest of the robot's design. For example, the robot can be set up or taken down in a short time, making it easy to deploy in any location. Luke Hares, Technology Director at CMR Surgical, explains: "Conventional industrial robots are designed to be installed once and then run for years. However, an operating robot sometimes needs to be moved four or five times a day. We have therefore deployed advanced collaborative robotics to deliver a simple user experience and enable healthcare providers to quickly set up or take down the system." This increases the deployability of the operating robot, reducing the cost per operation.
Modular design
Versius consists of several separate modules. For example, the operating robot is decoupled from the console that surgeons use to control it. Thanks to this modular design, the operating robot takes up less space and can be more easily positioned in existing operating rooms. In addition, it is possible to control multiple operating robots using a single control console. This feature also increases the flexibility of the system.
Surgical robots aimed at minimally invasive surgery are not new, by the way. For instance, the Da Vinci surgical robot by US-based Intuitive Surgical was approved for clinical use by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) back in 2000. In the Netherlands, too, this operating robot is used by dozens of hospitals for a variety of operations, including bowel, prostate and bladder surgeries. Like Versius, the Da Vinci system is modular, with the module on which the operating robot is mounted disconnected from the console used to control the robot.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: CMR Surgical
Source: The Guardian
