A Small, 4-Degree-Of-Planar Freedom Robot for Artery Cross Clamping during Minimally Invasive Aorta Repair Surgery

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is one of the most common diseases in old people and accounts for nearly 15,000 deaths each year. The most long-standing approach of AAA treatment is open surgery, at which large incisions are necessary. Drawbacks of open surgery lead to minimally invasive surgery (MIS) of aortic repair, whose main problem is that cross-clamping process is too time consuming. Hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS) is new approach of AAA treatment. During a HALS, the surgeon takes advantage of his/her fingers and tactile feedback and, as a result, the cross-clamping time would reduce significantly. However, the additional required incision, the space that surgeon´s hand would take up, and the possibility of hand fatigue, are some drawbacks that result in the HALS not to be so popular. In this paper, we considered a small, four-degree-of-planar-freedom robot to imitate the function of surgeon´s finger during a HALS of aortic repair, to help the surgeon during a MIS surgery to reduce the cross clamping time. Some boundary conditions such as, circular cross section of aorta with a definite diameter of 50 mm, were considered, the governing equations were simulated and the path followed by the tip of the robot, and the different angles of all joints were extracted. It was concluded that although under the considered boundary conditions, the movement can be improved.