Search

Objective: To investigate the disturbance induced in the cochlea during cochleostomy using conventional drill and a hand guided robotic drill., Study Design: The study is based on experimental measurements using the Laser Doppler Vibrometer during the drilling processes converted to Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) for comparison., Setting: The study is based on experimental results of three sets of cochleostomies on human cadaver heads., Main Outcome Measure(s): Robotic drilling, in comparison to the conventional drilling method, creates a consistently lower level of disturbance in cochlea across the hearing frequency range., Results: Robotic drilling, in comparison to the conventional drilling method, creates a consistently lower level of disturbance in cochlea across the hearing frequency range., Conclusions: It is reasonable to conclude that robotic drilling has a lower possibility of creating acoustic trauma in cochlea that endangers the residual hearing of patients.

Background: An arm supported robotic drill has been recently demonstrated for preparing cochleostomies in a pilot research clinical trial. In this paper, a hand-guided robotic drill is presented and tested on human cadaver trials., Methods: The innovative smart tactile approach can automatically detect drilling mediums and decided when to stop drilling to prevent penetrating the endosteum. The smart sensing scheme has been implemented in a concept of a hand guided robotic drill., Results: Experiments were carried out on two adult cadaveric human bodies for verifying the drilling process and successfully finished cochleostomy on three cochlea. The advantage over a system supported by a mechanical arm includes the flexibility in adjusting the trajectory to initiate cutting without slipping. Using the same concept as a conventional drilling device, the user will also be benefit from the lower setup time and cost, and lower training overhead., Conclusion: The hand-guided robotic drill was recently developed for testing on human cadavers. The robotic drill successfully prepared cochleostomies in all three cases., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

The current gold standard material for orthopedic applications is titanium (Ti), however, other materials such as cobalt-chromium-molybdenum (CoCrMo) are often preferred due to their wear resistance and mechanical strength. This study investigates if the bioactivity of CoCrMo can be enhanced by coating the surface with titanium oxide (TiO2 ) by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD), thereby replicating the surface oxide layer found on Ti. CoCrMo, TiO2-coated CoCrMo (CCMT) and Ti substrates were used for this study. Cellular f-actin distribution was shown to be noticeably different between cells on CCMT and CoCrMo after 24 h in osteogenic culture, with cells on CCMT exhibiting greater spread with developed protrusions. Osteogenic differentiation was shown to be enhanced on CCMT compared to CoCrMo, with increased calcium ion content per cell (p < 0.05), greater hydroxyapatite nodule formation (p < 0.05) and reduced type I collagen deposition per cell (p < 0.05). The expression of the focal adhesion protein vinculin was shown to be marginally greater on CCMT compared to CoCrMo, whereas AFM results indicated that CCMT required more force to remove a single cell from the substrate surface compared to CoCrMo (p < 0.0001). These data suggest that CVD TiO2 coatings may have the potential to increase the biocompatibility of CoCrMo implantable devices., (© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background: There is a need for sensor-guided robotic devices that discriminate working conditions and media, and control interaction of tool-points with respect to tissues. At the micro-surgical scale the need is to control exact penetration through flexible tissues and to control relative motion with respect to moving or deforming tissue targets and interfaces., Methods: This paper describes a smart surgical drill that is able to control interaction with respect to the flexing tissue to avoid penetration or to control the extent of protrusion with respect to the position of the flexible tissue interface under drilling. The sensing scheme used is able to discriminate between the variations in types of conditions posed in the drilling environment., Results: The fully autonomous system is able to respond to tissue type, behaviour and deflection in real time. The system is robust in terms of different drilling angle, thickness, stiffness, and disturbances encountered. Also it is intuitive to use, efficient to set up and uses standard drill bits., Conclusions: The smart drill has been used to prepare cochleostomies in theatre and was used to remove bone tissue leaving the endosteal membrane intact. This has enabled preservation of sterility and the drilling debris to be removed prior to insertion of the electrode. Results presented in this paper suggest that the robotic smart drill is tolerant and robust on various angled drilling trajectories with respect to tissues, tissue thickness, environmental disturbances, and has been used within the operating theatre., (Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Microsurgery and processes involving cell manipulation or cell surgery are clinical practices where the operator works at or beyond the threshold of human dexterity. Current tools available are conventional in their design, and this limits consistency and the level of reliability and achievement. Surgical robotic devices have been explored to improve precision in minimal access surgical procedures to augment control of tool points in tissues, and have enabled feedback of sensory data from which the operator is able to deduce information on the tool at the working site. In this paper, relevant technologies are described that can be harnessed to improve perception of tool point interaction with tissues at the working site and to improve tool control at the small scale required in clinical practice for microsurgery and for cell surgery.