Abstract-We report the development of a robot for radiological percutaneous interventions using uniplanar fluoroscopy, biplanar fluoroscopy, or computed tomography (CT) for needle biopsy, radio frequency ablation, cryotherapy, and other needle procedures. AcuBot is a compact six-degree-of-freedom robot for manipulating a needle or other slender surgical instrument in the confined space of the imager without inducing image artifacts. Its distinctive characteristic is its decoupled motion capability correlated to the positioning, orientation, and instrument insertion steps of the percutaneous intervention. This approach allows each step of the intervention to be performed using a separate mechanism of the robot. One major advantage of this kinematic approach is patient safety. The first feasibility experiment performed with the robot, a cadaver study of perispinal blocks under biplanar fluoroscopy, is presented. The main expected application of this system is to CT-based procedures. AcuBot has received Food and Drug Administration clearance (IDE G010331/S1), and a clinical trial of using the robot for perispinal nerve and facet blocks is presently underway

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Skin burns are one of the most common injuries associated with increased morbidity and mortality, especially in the children and the elderlies. Severe burns, especially, result in a systemic immune and inflammatory response, which may reflect in multiple organ insufficiency, and a fast and effective local restorative process is essential for functionality recovering, as well as for interrupting the generalized systemic response. We have aimed here to assess the effect of different wound dressings in what it regards the morphology and clinical restoration after a skin burn. On a rat animal model, we have evaluated the macroscopic and histopathological features of controlled third degree skin burns in control animals versus treatments with local dressings of silver sulfadiazine (SDA) cream, simple gel (G), gel + silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) (G+NPS), gel + exosomes (G+EXO) and gel + AgNPs + exosomes (Gel+NPS+EXO), at 14 days and, respectively, 21 days after the lesion. Tissue fragments were harvested and processed for histopathology and immunohistochemistry. Immunofluorescence was utilized to evaluate the maturity of underlaying granulation tissue based on double stainings for smooth muscle actin (SMA) and cluster of differentiation 31 (CD31). Our study showed variability in what it regards the vessel density and immunoexpression of SMA between the treatments, and image analysis revealed that most SMA reduction and blood vessel density reduction in the maturing granulation tissue occurred for the G+NPS and G+NPS+EXO treatments. A complete re-epithelization was also observed for the G+NPS+EXO treatment. Overall, our results show that improved topic treatments promote faster re-epithelization and reparation of the dermis after skin burn lesions, providing thus an avenue for new treatments that aim both local recuperation and systemic infection prevention.

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