ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research

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2021/07/28 | Research | Surgical technologies

Keynote at the Hamlyn Symposium 2021

Stefan Weber, professor for Image-guided Therapy at the ARTORG Center and CEO of CASCINATION, will hold a keynote speech on the current state and future of surgical tools with robotic autonomy in the operating theater, using the example of cochlear implantation, at the 2021 Closing Ceremony of the Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, 29 June.

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics at the Imperial College in London (UK) is the leading medical robotics event attended by an international audience of over 600 delegates with clinical, scientific and engineering expertise. (© Hamlyn Symposium)

In his talk entitled “Robotic Cochlear Surgery: Towards the Realm of Certainty” Prof Weber will demonstrate how robots can become indispensable allies in delicate minimally invasive surgery in the inner ear, like cochlear implantation. Over a decade of his research resulted in the development of robotic cochlear implantation and the first patient procedure in 2016. In 2018 CASCINATION AG launched the HEARO®, the world’s first task-autonomous high-precision surgical robot used in hospitals today.

Robotic Cochlear Implantation with the robotic platform developed at the ARTORG Center, University of Bern, and validated in the first patient procedure by Prof Marco Caversaccio, Director ORL, Head and Neck Surgery, Inselspital. (© Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, 2016)
Robotic Cochlear Implantation middle and first-time inner ear access drill stage performed by the HEARO® and observed by Prof Vedat Topsakal (right), ORL Surgeon, Universitair Ziekenhuis Antwerpen, Department of Otolaryngology, Antwerpen, Belgium. (© CASCINATION 2018)

 

At the Hamlyn Symposium Award and Closing Ceremony, the second keynote will be delivered by Jacques Marescaux, Hospital-University Institute of Strasbourg, titled “Imaging, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: the next steps in Minimally Invasive Surgery“.

Selected Publications

  •  V. Topsakal, M. Matulic, M. Z. Assadi, G. Mertens, V. Van Rompaey, and P. Van de Heyning, “Comparison of the surgical techniques and robotic techniques for cochlear implantation in terms of the trajectories toward the inner ear,” J. Int. Adv. Otol., vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 3–7, Apr. 2020. https://doi.org/10.5152/iao.2020.8113
  • M. Caversaccio et al., “Robotic cochlear implantation: surgical procedure and first clinical experience,” Acta Otolaryngol., vol. 137, pp. 1–11, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1080/00016489.2017.1278573
  • S. Weber et al., “Instrument flight to the inner ear,” Sci. Robot., vol. 2, no. 4, Mar. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.aal4916
  • D. Schneider et al., “Robotic cochlear implantation: feasibility of a multiport approach in an ex vivo model,” Eur. Arch. Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-019-05318-7
  • J. Ansó et al., “Prospective Validation of Facial Nerve Monitoring to Prevent Nerve Damage During Robotic Drilling,” Front. Surg., vol. 0, p. 58, Oct. 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsurg.2019.00058
  • T. Williamson et al., “Mechatronic Feasibility of Minimally Invasive, Atraumatic Cochleostomy,” Biomed Res. Int., vol. 2014, p. 181624, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/181624

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