RESUMO
HeartLander is a small, mobile robot designed to assist surgical procedures on the surface of the heart. It crawls within the pericardial sac surrounding the heart. Numerous potential clinical uses for HeartLander involve injections or other interventions at multiple locations on the epicardial surface. To minimize treatment time, we have developed an algorithm that optimizes a plan for reaching a given set of treatment targets. Results from in vitro evaluation on a beating heart model show improvement over a greedy technique.
Assuntos
Procedimentos Cirúrgicos Cardíacos/instrumentação , Pericárdio/cirurgia , Robótica , Cirurgia Assistida por Computador/instrumentação , Algoritmos , Técnicas Biossensoriais , Procedimentos Cirúrgicos Cardíacos/economia , Desenho de Equipamento , Coração/fisiologia , Humanos , Técnicas In Vitro , Modelos Estatísticos , Movimento (Física) , Cirurgia Assistida por Computador/economia , Fatores de Tempo , Resultado do TratamentoRESUMO
The injection of a mechanical bulking agent into the left ventricular (LV) wall of the heart has shown promise as a therapy for maladaptive remodeling of the myocardium after myocardial infarct (MI). The HeartLander robotic crawler presented itself as an ideal vehicle for minimally-invasive, highly accurate epicardial injection of such an agent. Use of the optimal bulking agent, a thermosetting hydrogel developed by our group, presents a number of engineering obstacles, including cooling of the miniaturized injection system while the robot is navigating in the warm environment of a living patient. We present herein a demonstration of an integrated miniature cooling and injection system in the HeartLander crawling robot, that is fully biocompatible and capable of multiple injections of a thermosetting hydrogel into dense animal tissue while the entire system is immersed in a 37°C water bath.
