Technology

New in surgery, miniature robots that travel through blood vessels

This advance comes to us from South Korea with successful results, a micro robot that can enter blood vessels and perform surgical interventions.

This system has been named I-RAMAN (robot-assisted magnetic navigation system for endovascular interventions) and has demonstrated that it has the capacity to autonomously travel through the bloodstream in a pig, administer contrast and return to an extraction point. The I-RAMAN system uses an untethered robot guided by an external magnetic field.

The procedure for using the robot involves several steps, first creating a 3D map of the patient's blood vessels close to the blocked area using 2D X-ray images from different angles. Subsequently, the I-RAMAN system robot is injected into a blood vessel as close as possible to the treatment area using a catheter, and then guided by the magnetic field to the point of treatment based on the 3D map, described above.

The robot can perform a variety of tasks, such as inflating balloons, suctioning blood clots, and administering contrast or drugs in a localized manner. Once the task is completed, the external magnetic system guides the robot back to the catheter for removal. The team successfully tested the technique in artificial blood vessels and in the superficial femoral arteries of small pigs.

The research team plans to continue to improve the micro robot and the magnetic navigation system, including reducing the size of the robot and increasing the magnetic field. To achieve these goals, the research team established an agreement with a biotechnology company called InterMag. In addition, they will apply for clinical trials of the magnetic robot system with the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

The benefits of miniature robot-assisted surgeries offer a few advantages, compared to conventional methods, such as greater precision, as the autonomous navigation is based on a 3D map, on the other hand, the patient's exposure to ionizing radiation is reduced, and finally, the interventions could be less invasive and minimize the risks associated with surgery.

On the other hand, these robots can be used in various medical applications, such as neurology and angiology, which could improve the way medical conditions such as heart attacks and strokes are treated.

For the time being, although the micro-robots offer satisfactory results, ethical considerations such as privacy and confidentiality of medical data and responsibilities in case of errors remain to be defined, since the companies and professional personnel performing the interventions must ensure that the devices are safe and effective in a wider variety of patients and diagnoses.

You can learn more about this development at https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10041766

18 de Abril, 2023