Robotic Surgery for Brain Hemorrhages

Brain clots are a leading cause of death and disability, as one in 50 persons may develop an intracerebral hemorrhage in their lifetime. When it does occur, 40% of the individuals die within a month, and many of the survivors incur serious brain damage.  Vanderbilt University (Tennessee, USA) researchers have devised a new image-guided surgical system that employs steerable needles about the size of those used for biopsies to penetrate the brain with minimal damage and suction away the blood clot that has formed. The team’s sterilizable and biocompatible robot that controls three degrees of freedom of the needle and an active cannula system is demonstrated to remove 92% of brain clots in simulations.