Image-Guided Miniature Robot Supports Surgical Procedures

A fully-fledged miniature robotic platform allows physicians to continue using their preferred surgical instruments during non-invasive procedures.

The Interventional Systems (iSYS; Kitzbühel, Austria) Micromate is a table-mounted medical robot for interventional procedures that allows full-body, real-time imaging of any procedure that involves placing or manipulating instruments, with sub-millimetric accuracy. The universal instrument guidance solution can hold small needles and heavy instruments with the same precision, and be used with any cone-beam computerized tomography (CT), Fluoro CT, or fluoroscope device, reducing intervention time by up to 66% and alignment time by up to 27%.

The robot can hold instruments up to two kg without interruption of motion, while the positioning arm can support up to five kg without slippage, even when fully extended. Alignments can be performed manually, using a joystick, or automatically to a pre-defined surgical plan. The universal end-effector and needle and tool-guide and core platform can be used in multiple clinical disciplines, guiding instruments with different geometries without the need for customization or restriction of the surgeon's practice.

“We are strong believers in live imaging, and Micromate is the only available robotic platform that can be used inside the gantry, while addressing constraints related to practicality and cost,” said Michael Vogele, CEO of iSYS. “Its seamless integration into the clinical workflow allows the surgeon to execute and control the clinical tasks while being certain that a safe and reliable trajectory is maintained by the platform.”

“Micromate is very small, very comfortable to use, there’s enough space to position it on the patient; and on the other hand, it’s a highly accurate system, “said Gerlig Widmann, MD, of Tirol Kliniken (Innsbruck; Austria). “It’s very intuitive and helps performing sterotactic robot-supported procedure in the angio and CT suite, such as biopsies, ablations, and endoleak punctures, where you need high accuracy and reliability.”

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