VisioSurgical Solutions (VSS) announced it is developing a compact surgical robot for retinal surgery.
The project is being conducted with Kaleidoscope Innovation, a United States medical device design and engineering firm.
VSS said it is developing a compact robotic head that uses the surgeon’s existing microscope and intraoperative imaging. The system is designed to deliver precision better than 10 µm, with tremor filtering, motion scaling, and force limits that protect the retina.
“Retinal surgery works at a scale where the human hand sets the limit,” Dr Marc de Smet, a member of the founding team at VSS, said in a company news release.
Retinal surgery works at a scale where the human hand sets the limit…
Dr de Smet is a practising retinal and cataract surgeon who was a cofounder and chief medical officer of Preceyes, whose system performed the first robot-assisted retinal surgery in a human. He built the first prototype retinal surgery robot with Eindhoven University of Technology.
“Our first robot showed that a machine can operate inside the eye with a precision no hand achieves. With VSS we are making that precision compact enough for any operating room, and we are building it so that the surgeon stays in control: the robot extends the surgeon’s hands; it does not replace them.”
VSS plans to develop the concept, build the first prototype, and conduct a confirmation study of the approach to retinal surgery without vitrectomy. It said the first applications will be retinal surgery and the precise delivery of gene and cell therapies to the retina, followed by glaucoma and cataract applications.
