Feasibility of daVinci-based 2mm Tendon Driven Continuum Tools r Robotic Repair of Open Spina Bifida

Abstract

Open Spina Bifida (OSB) is a neural tube defect where a section of the spinal cord develops outside the back of the fetus in the form of a lesion. A successful repair involves the dissection of the spinal cord from its’ surrounding lesion and then suturing the lesion wound to close. Research on this procedure is currently focused on minimally invasive robotic approaches. Suturing was found to be the more difficult and time intensive of the two tasks in the repair[1]. For a robotic approach, the tool ports into the uterus must be minimized to at least 3mm to reduce the likelihood of maternal complications [2]. A novel 2.8mm diameter tool and suturing technique has been proposed by Amanov and Ertop et al. for prostate surgery [3], [4]. In comparison, our tool is designed for a traditional suturing technique and timing results are provided. For this minimally invasive robotic task, we improve the latest 2mm diameter continuum tendon-driven wrist surgical tool design of Francis et al. [5] to improve gripper responsiveness, implement a numerical inverse kinematics solver integrated with a teleoperation controller, and show suturing feasibility through timed trials to support in-utero OSB repair.