A Magnetically Navigated Microcannula for Subretinal Injections

Abstract

Retinal disorders, including age-related macular degeneration, are leading causes of vision loss worldwide. New treatments, such as gene therapies and stem cell regeneration, require therapeutics to be introduced to the subretinal space due to poor diffusion to the active component of the retina. Subretinal injections are a difficult and risky surgical procedure and have been suggested as a candidate for robot-assisted surgery. We propose a different actuation paradigm to existing robotic approaches using remote magnetic navigation to control a flexible microcannula. A flexible cannula allows for high dexterity and considerable safety advantages over rigid tools, while maintaining the benefits of micrometer precision, hand tremor removal, and telemanipulation. The position of the cannula is tracked in realtime using near-infrared tip illumination, allowing for semiautomatic placement of the cannula and an intuitive user interface. Using this tool, we successfully performed several subretinal injections in ex-vivo porcine eyes under both microscope and optical coherence tomography visualization.

Evolutionary design of magnetic soft continuum robots

“…S7). While guidewires/catheters with different single magnets have been fabricated (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23), their half workspaces are always a curve with an area of 0 (Fig. 5 and SI Appendix, section 3).…”

“…Existing MSCRs are mostly fabricated by embedding one or more permanent magnets in the distal portion of the MSCR (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25). More recently, a new type of MSCR has been developed by uniformly dispersing hard-magnetic particles in elastomeric fibers (16) (Fig.…”

A Submillimeter Continuous Variable Stiffness Catheter for Compliance Control

“…Magnetically guided tools have been explored for a variety of applications in cardiology, [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ] interventional neuroradiology, [ 25 , 26 , 27 ] ophthalmology, [ 28 , 29 , 30 ] vascular surgery, [ 31 , 32 ] and gastroenterology. [ 33 ] The coupling of VS tools with magnetic navigation has the potential to provide a new generation of advanced and smart surgical tools.…”

Operation behaviours of surgical forceps in continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis

“…Robotic technology provides a potential way to assist surgeons. Various teleoperated, 3 hands‐on operated, 4 hand‐held, 5 and untethered 6 robotic systems have been developed to enhance and expand the capabilities of surgeons. In the development of CCC assist robot, reasonable positioning accuracy and force accuracy are required to facilitate performance evaluation and controller design.…”