Chuanguan News reporter Ning Ning.
In the operating room, the patient is undergoing surgery to remove a benign tumor from the parotid gland. In front of the console, the surgeon wears 3D glasses, staring intently at the computer screen, remotely operating the robotic arm; On the operating table, three robotic arms are working, cooperating with auxiliary instruments, and the 3D endoscopic system next to it shows the ...... of the operation in real timeIn less than 1 hour, the tumor was removed, the wound was sutured, and the operation was successful.
On the operating table, 3 robotic arms are working.
This scene is a recent scene that happened in the West China Stomatological Hospital of Sichuan University. The surgical robot jointly developed by the team of West China School of Stomatology of Sichuan University and Harbin Institute of Technology has completed the first domestic surgical robot-assisted parotid gland tumor resection and the first domestic domestic surgical robot-assisted submandibular gland tumor resection.
Industry insiders said that this marks a breakthrough in the application of domestic surgical robots in oral and maxillofacial surgery.
What are the benefits? Less bleeding, less trauma, and faster recovery.
So far, we have completed 16 such surgeries. On January 10, Zhu Guiquan, deputy chief physician of the head and neck tumor surgery department of West China Hospital of Stomatology of Sichuan University, said that surgical robots play a key role.
The surgical robot is composed of a console, a robotic arm, a 3D image system, etc., among which the robotic arm has a unique jitter filtering function, which can carry out flexible rotation operations with multiple degrees of freedom, which overcomes the blind spots in traditional surgery and allows surgeons to complete refined operations in a narrow anatomical area. "As a result, the surgical incision is small, the amount of bleeding is small, the trauma is small, the aesthetics are not compromised, and the recovery period is short. Recalling the surgical process, Zhu Guiquan felt good overall about the operation.
In front of the console, the doctor wears 3D glasses and remotely operates the robotic arm.
Among them, the sense of 3D substitution is particularly strong. Zhu Guiquan introduced that due to the high-resolution 3D image of the console, the 3D view can be magnified up to 15 times, which overcomes the problem of limited visual field of traditional laparoscopic surgery, provides a broader surgical field of view, and helps to help determine the position of the nerve, so as to better protect the rich nerves of the face. "Importantly, after the operation, the patient had almost no facial nerve palsy symptoms that were common in the past, and there was a high level of satisfaction. ”
Behind the success of the operation is the in-depth R&D cooperation of the head and neck oncology surgery team, and the continuous exploration of surgical robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery.
According to reports, the team has been carrying out national-level projects with the Harbin Institute of Technology team since 2020, laying the foundation for the R&D cooperation between the two. "As we continue to explore, we have found that we can expand the application of universal surgical robots to the oral and maxillofacial areas. Zhu Guiquan said.
In January 2023, the team used a surgical robot to operate on the model; Two months later, the experiment and drill began, and "the team became more and more proficient in operation, showing good safety and feasibility." In November, it was officially applied to the actual operation.
From the drill to the actual operation, there are many problems during the period: for example, first of all, it is necessary to ensure safety, and secondly, it is not possible to carry out surgical transfer, that is, during the operation, robots are used to do the operation from beginning to end, and the entire operation must be completed smoothly. Zhu Guiquan said that this put forward higher requirements for the operation, and the team spent half a year on repeated demonstrations and run-ins, and finally showed good results.
How can it be improved? Turn a "kitchen knife" into a "fruit knife".
At present, the surgical robots used worldwide are generally general-purpose surgical robots represented by urological surgery.
Industry insiders said that for a long time, due to the difficulty of research and development and high cost, the surgical robot market has been monopolized by foreign brands, and the high cost of surgery has also limited the wide promotion of this high-precision technology. "The robot used by the team is not strictly a specialized oral surgery robot. Zhu Guiquan said frankly that on the basis of general-purpose surgical robots, coupled with the team's leading technology of "concealed approach cavity construction", it is possible to remove head and neck tumors with full robot-assisted assistance.
At present, it has become the consensus of the industry to turn the universal "kitchen knife" of the general-purpose surgical robot into a "fruit knife" specially for peeling "apples".
In fact, at present, orthopedic robots, neurosurgical robots and other specialized surgical robots have been developed, because the specialized surgeries are different and have their own characteristics, the oral and maxillofacial surgery urgently needs to develop surgical robots with specialized characteristics. Zhu Guiquan said that at present, in the operation, the three robotic arms will inevitably encounter the situation of "fighting with each other", and the future development trend is that the "three arms" are integrated into a single hole to facilitate more accurate operation.
He believes that the research and development and application of dental robots will also help to further reduce costs, "just like automobiles, there are more applications in subdivisions, and the cost will be reduced, and the cost of maintenance and warranty will also be reduced." ”
It is reported that next, the team will focus on equipment improvement and equipment intelligence. To this end, they issued an invitation, hoping to cooperate with Kawauchi robot development companies to further strengthen research and development and expand application scenarios. At the same time, the team also plans to set up skills training for surgical robots to fill the gap in related training.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee).