Measurement-Guided Port Placement for Robotic Surgery Setup
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Solution Overview
Problem
Incorrect port placement during minimally invasive procedures can lead to difficulties in surgical tool manipulation, necessitating a need for accurate port placement guidance.
Innovation Solution
A robotic medical system with a port placement assistance mode that determines user-selected port locations and compares them to recommended locations, providing recommendations for adjustment and enabling manual or automated movement of robotic arms to align with the recommended positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If port placement is performed manually without guidance, then the setup process is simple and quick, but port placement accuracy deteriorates leading to surgical difficulties
Solution Approach 1:
A measurement tool is introduced as an intermediary device between the physician and the patient's body. This tool includes sensors that detect anatomical landmarks and provide data to the system, which then calculates recommended port locations. The measurement tool acts as a mediator that transforms manual placement into a guided process with improved accuracy without requiring complex integration into the robotic arm structure itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the purely mechanical manual measurement and placement process with a system that uses sensors, processors, and display devices. Instead of relying on the physician's manual measurement skills and physical positioning, the system uses electronic sensors to detect anatomical landmarks, processes the data through algorithms, and presents visual guidance on a display device, thereby substituting mechanical skills with electronic measurement and processing.
2Reliability
If port placement accuracy is improved through measurement tools, then surgical tool manipulation improves, but the setup time and process complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary measurements and calculations of port locations before the actual surgical procedure begins. The measurement tool is positioned and anatomical landmarks are detected during the setup phase, allowing the system to calculate recommended port locations in advance. This preliminary action ensures that when the surgery begins, the port placements are already optimized, improving surgical tool manipulation reliability without adding time during the critical surgical phase.
Solution Approach 2:
The measurement tool is designed to be self-positioning on the patient's body, utilizing the patient's own anatomical landmarks for registration. The system automatically detects landmarks such as the xiphoid process and iliac crests without requiring additional markers or complex positioning procedures. This self-service approach reduces setup time while maintaining measurement accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
Robotic medical systems may provide port placement guidance to a physician before incisions are made in a patient. A robotic medical system can include a robotic arm and a measurement tool coupled to the robotic arm. The robotic medical system can be configured to determine, based on a location of the measurement tool, a user-selected location for placing a port on a patient. The robotic medical system can compare the user-selected location with a recommended location for placing the port on the patient and provide a notification in accordance with the comparison.