Towards Suturing From Within the Urethra Using Concentric Tube Robots: First Experiences in Biological Tissues

Abstract

Towards reducing the invasiveness of radical prostatectomy, we have designed a robotic system for performing it transurethrally. Suturing to attach the urethra to the bladder (i.e. anastomosis) after prostate removal is the most challenging part of the procedure, and has previously been demonstrated robotically only in synthetic phantoms. In this paper, we present initial experiments in biological tissues using ex vivo squid tissue embedded in an anthropomorphic phantom made using 3D printing and silicone casting. We successfully performed running sutures with our robotic system, fastening the urethra and the bladder to one another.