Reasons Behind The Existence of Surgical Robot
While there aren’t any proven cures for repairing a heart broken by the death of a loved one, a failed marriage or some other devastating experience, science and technology have made amazing strives in both protecting and repairing the body’s cardiovascular (CV) system.
That’s good news, given that CV disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States. With more than seven hundred thousand people dying from it annually. Base on survey, the economic costs related to CV disease (and stroke, a potential consequence of CV disease) are staggering, reaching $403 billion in 2006, according to the American Heart Association and National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Given the “carrot” of huge profit potential in serving the millions of people needing treatment, it’s no surprise that the CV market remains the largest segment in the medical device industry. Worth $21.76 billion in 2006 and projected to exceed $25 billion this year, it only will continue to grow, according to data from Kalorama Information (with offices in Rockville, MD and New York, NY), a publisher of life science research reports.
According to Reuters projected analysis, In 2007 alone, the cardiovascular 23% of biomarker market accounted for US$1.3billion, with majority revenues derived from biomaker discovery and molecular diagnostics.
And by 2015 estimated projection, cardiovascular biomarket market maturity growth will reach up to US$6.6 billion.
The invention from Carnegie Mellon University’s “snake-like surgical robot” could enable a surgeon perform a critical heart operation in just one incision.
The so called “CardioArm”, is a “snake-shape robot” with a series of joints that would be easier to control and automatically adjust to follow the course directed by the robot’s head. This provides greater precision than a traditional flexible endoscope can offer.
102 degrees of freedom
The CardioArm has 102 degress of freedom, and could be operated using a computer and a joystick, where three of which can be activated at once.
This allows it to enter through a single point in the chest and wrap around the heart until it reaches the right spot to, say, remove problematic tissue. “The nice thing about [the] design is that each joint follows where you went in space. That’s not always possible in other designs,” says Webster. This kind of control prevents the probe from bumping into sensitive tissue. The disadvantage of a jointed robot, however, is that it’s harder to miniaturize, Webster says.
Smallest Version
The smallest version of the device is 300 millimeters long and has a diameter of 12 millimeters. Eventually, the CMU researchers hope to make a snake small enough to 
enter the bloodstream through a blood vessel, says Marco Zenati, one of the principal researchers on the CardioArm project and a professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.
The probe is currently being developed by the startup Cardiorobotics, formerly known as Innovention Technologies, which Zenati and Choset founded in 2005. So far, the team has performed successful cardiovascular surgeries on nine pigs and two human cadavers, says Choset. According to the company’s website, live human trials should begin later this year.
The best Competing Probe in the Market
Looking ahead, on the “holy grail of innovation” and the share for the attempting CardioVascular market share, the most likely surgery robot will be biodegradable stents (as shown on left pictures), according to industry experts. Several companies are working on stents that would totally disappear after they have done their work. Currently, Abbott is the only company with one of these stents in a clinical trial phase. According to data released by The Lancet in March, Abbott’s fully bioabsorbable DES (known as drug-eluting stents, or DES) , has obtained excellent clinical safety results in patients with coronary artery disease.
