Recently, in the Cardiology ward of Changhai Hospital Affiliated to Naval Military Medical University, 65-year-old Mr. Chen sighed to his wife: "My 'engine' has finally been supplied with 'oil' again. It is also the first person in the country!"
Before the operation, Mr. Chen was diagnosed with coronary heart disease due to repeated chest pains. The two blood vessels supplying blood to the heart were blocked by 80%, and the drug treatment effect was not good. Combining with Mr. Chen's condition, the team of Professor Zhang Bili of the Cardiology Department of the hospital performed the operation on him using the world's first universal interventional surgery robot independently developed by the hospital.
A reporter from Science and Technology Daily learned that this operation is the first domestic robot-assisted remote full-process coronary interventional operation, and the patient responded well during and after the operation. This also makes Mr. Chen the first patient in China to successfully complete a remote coronary intervention using a domestic robot.
Developed the world's first general-purpose interventional surgery robot
Endovascular interventional surgery robots are an innovative point of common concern in the medical field all over the world. A few Western countries have invested a lot of money in research and development, but there has been no substantial progress.
Professor Lu Qingsheng, director of the vascular surgery department of Changhai Hospital, made full use of the hospital's clinical advantages in vascular surgery and successfully developed the world's first universal interventional surgery robot. Using this robot, Lu Qingsheng's team realized the precise positioning and placement of multiple guide wires, catheters and stents at the same time for the first time. The domestic endovascular robotic system with completely independent intellectual property rights has reached the world's advanced level.
Using this technology, in August 2021, Lu Qingsheng's team successfully completed the world's first robotic endovascular repair of aortic aneurysm, and in November 2021, the world's first robotic stenting of lower extremity arteries was completed. This also lays a solid foundation for the extended application of this technology in the next step.
Afterwards, Professor Lu Qingsheng's team and Professor Zhang Bili's team from the Department of Cardiology of the hospital quickly docked to jointly study the practical application of this technology in the field of cardiology. The whole process of complex coronary intervention assisted by the interventional surgery robot is the practical application of this technology in the field of cardiology, which expands the application field of domestic endovascular interventional surgery robots.
Robots use pigs to practice their hands before "taking jobs"
Successful animal experiments are the premise and guarantee for the application of new technologies to humans. According to relevant national regulations, Professor Zhang Bili's team officially launched the animal experiment of porcine coronary artery robotic intervention at the end of August 2021.
The anatomical position of porcine coronary blood vessels is different from that of human blood vessels. Using robots to perform porcine coronary angiography and implant stents is an innovative work, and there is no experience to learn from.
With rich surgical experience and tacit cooperation, the team successfully completed the coronary angiography and coronary stent release of 6 pigs through the remote control of 2 sets of robotic arms (including 4 bionic hands) of the robot, which took about 25 minutes on average. The average exposure time of the operator under the digital subtraction angiography (DSA) machine is 5 minutes, the intraoperative high-definition image transmission is stable, the bedside robotic arm is flexible, and the response and synergy are good. From the command issued by the main control platform to the execution of the end of the robot arm, the average delay is less than 130 milliseconds. During the whole experimental process, the robotic system did not have any software or hardware defects. All pigs had no related complications during and after surgery. They ate normally after waking up from anesthesia. No coronary dissection or coronary artery was found in the animal anatomy after surgery. Serious consequences such as perforation.
The results of animal experiments preliminarily verified the feasibility of domestic robotic coronary surgery technology. On this basis, Changhai Hospital has built the world's first 5G+VR smart catheterization laboratory. After the innovative integration of 5G, VR, medical private network, cloud services and other technologies, it has achieved a 360° real-time VR effect.
