Bone cyst surgery robot with bendable drilling and remote control

Abstract

Limited by rigid instruments, traditional open curettage of bone cysts requires large incisions and the removal of substantial amounts of healthy bone tissue to approach the lesion. This causes a lengthy recovery period with an increased risk for complications. While other less invasive methods have been suggested, none have been accepted as standard treatment modalities, and many of them have not been applied beyond academic studies. We propose a fully robotic compliant joint-based endoscopic surgery system capable of the minimally invasive removal of bone cysts. A drilling robot optimized to bend removes the lesion, while an endoscopic robot provides visual feedback as well as suction and irrigation for cleaning the inner bone. Two leader devices are used to precisely control the movement of each robot in a leader-follower configuration. The performance of the proposed system was evaluated in a series of experiments on animal femurs. ⓒ The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Computational Design and Engineering.