Percutaneous tumor ablation procedures for liver or stomach cancers usually are not new. “It is a confirmed approach. You’ll be able to go to the hospital, the doctor inserts the needle in a 10-minute, microwave ablation session, and there’s no scar. You’ll be able to go house the identical day or the day after and the tumor is destroyed,” stated Lucien Blondel, chief know-how officer at Quantum Surgical, in an interview with Design Information.
However Blondel stated these procedures may be difficult as a result of they’re carried out freehand, and the needle needs to be positioned at simply the fitting place. This may be affected by one thing as slight because the affected person respiration.
The Epione robotic platform from Quantum Surgical collaborates with the doctor to plan, execute, and ensure the process. “The robotic is three components,” Blondel stated. “The primary aspect is the software program that allows loading the affected person photographs and planning the needle pathway into the stomach, in order that the needle shall be adequately positioned relative to the tumor.”
Then a collaborative robotic guides the insertion of the needle, conserving monitor of which section of the respiratory cycle the affected person is in. “What is particular to Epione is the robotic just isn’t performing the process. The robotic is an assistant that exactly positions a information via which the doctor will insert the needle,” Blondel stated.
He defined that, with Epione, the doctor stays in management as a result of you will need to present tactile suggestions. “Once they insert the needle, physicians can really feel totally different tissues. They will really feel when they’re puncturing the liver capsule, or when they’re pushing the tumor away. This is essential info that we need to protect for the doctor,” Blondel stated.
Software program permits merging earlier than and after photographs. “You have got principally the tumor in a single picture and what you’ve destroyed or ablated within the different picture,” Blondel stated, noting that the merging of photographs informs the doctor concerning the precise margins that had been achieved through the process.
Epione is exclusive in that it facilitates a multiple-needle process, which may be mandatory for bigger tumors, the place typically as much as eight probes should be positioned parallel to one another. “For complicated procedures that contain multiple needle, then the robotic is extraordinarily useful, and we have designed the robotic to account for this,” Blondel stated.
The Epione robotic platform from Quantum Surgical.
Radiation publicity may be decreased whereas utilizing Epione as properly, which advantages each doctor and affected person. “Once you use the robotic, it’s potential that you simply don’t want to make use of as many management CT scans in comparison with freehand as a result of the robotic is controlling the trajectories,” Blondel stated.
And utilizing Epione could enhance the variety of procedures that may be performed, as a result of the robotic facilitates the harder features. “Some interventional radiologists could not need to provide this type of therapy to their sufferers as a result of it is nonetheless a difficult freehand process,” Blondel stated. “So, the intent is to standardize how the process is carried out and allow extra physicians to supply these therapies. And for individuals who already do that on a routine foundation, robotics facilitates sophisticated procedures corresponding to hard-to-reach tumors which might be close to a vessel a bile duct or one other organ in danger.”
At present, Epione is cleared to be used within the stomach in Europe and for liver ablation procedures in the USA.
