Surgical Snake Technology Extends Surgeons Reach

A snake-like endoscope enables surgeons to gain access to challenging anatomy, such as that encountered in otolaryngology procedures.

The Medrobotics Flex System is a highly articulated, multilinked endoscope that enables minimally-invasive surgery (MIS) to replace open surgical procedures for many parts of the anatomy that are difficult or previously impossible to reach. The maneuverability of the endoscope is gained from numerous mechanical linkages with concentric mechanisms; each mechanism can be placed into a rigid or a limp state. By employing a patented "follow-the-leader" movement strategy with these alternating states, the endoscope can be directed into any shape through the relative orientations of its linkages.


The system is designed to provide a cost-effective, easy-to-use robot-assisted surgical platform for hospitals and surgeons in situations where conventional line-of-sight technologies are either not feasible or suboptimal, using nonlinear circuitous paths. The system is self-supported via single-site access into the body. An assist platform includes an onboard high-definition (HD) vision system and contains multiple open device channels to accept a variety of proprietary “wristed” 3mm Flex instruments or third party surgical and interventional instruments. The Medrobotics Flex System is a product of Medrobotics (Raynham, MA, USA), and has received the European Community CE Marking of approval.

“The Flex System is the first robot-assisted flexible endoscopic platform for use during surgical procedures,” said Samuel Straface, PhD, president and CEO of Medrobotics. “The system enables surgeons to access and visualize hard-to-reach anatomical locations and deploy specially designed flexible surgical instruments to perform procedures.”

“The Flex System provides a unique platform to access and visualize surgical targets in difficult to reach locations such as the oropharynx and endolarynx,” said Prof. Marshall Strome, MD, chairman emeritus of the Cleveland Clinic (OH, USA) Head and Neck Institute, and co-chair of the Medrobotics medical advisory board. “With currently available technologies, we are often trading off between access, visualization and two-handed surgery, but the Flex System gives us all three.”

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