Introduction

The present invention relates to a minimally invasive robotic manipulator for simulating, accessing and releasing of heart valves into a patient’s body, even equipped with an endoscopic vision system and a navigation system.

Technical features

The traditional heart valve replacement process is obtained by a sternotomy, which needs making a cut in the middle of the patient’s chest to reach the aorta. Such sternotomy is associated with many problems both during the operation and in the post-operative period. The patented robotic system is proposed for the positioning of a cardiac valve under endoscopic guidance. The robotic system is equipped with a flexible manipulating arm (figure above) adapted to be introduced into the patient’s body. Its distal end utilizes releasing means (figure below) to introduce and release the valve into the blood vessel. Such arm is further equipped with at least  two cameras and an electronic control unit in order to automatically calculate the trajectory of manipulating arm for releasing in a desired position of the valve.

Possible Applications

• Minimally invasive, endoscopic surgery for positioning and releasing of an aortic valve into the blood vessel of a patient.

Advantages

• Precision robotic system;
• Minimally invasive;
• Endoscopically;
• Cameras on the robotic arm to see into a blood vessel during the positioning and the releasing of the valve;
• Automatic and real time calculation of the trajectory for releasing the valve.