Preliminary evaluation of a mobile robotic device for navigation and intervention on the beating heart

This article describes the development and preliminary testing of a mobile robotic device to facilitate minimally invasive beating-heart intrapericardial intervention. The HeartLander robot will be introduced beneath the pericardium via subxiphoid incision, adhere to the epicardium, navigate to any location, and administer therapy under the control of the physician. As compared to current robotic cardiac surgical techniques, this novel paradigm obviates immobilization of the heart and eliminates access limitations. Furthermore, it does not require lung deflation and differential ventilation and thus could enable outpatient cardiac surgery. The current HeartLander prototypes use suction to maintain prehension of the epicardium and wire actuation to perform locomotion. A fiber optic videoscope displays visual feedback to the physician, who controls the device through a joystick interface. The initial prototype demonstrated successful prehension, turning, and locomotion on open-chest, beating-heart porcine models where the pericardium was removed (N = 3). A smaller second-generation prototype with an injection system demonstrated locomotion and myocardial injection of dye, both performed with the pericardium intact (N = 3). These trials illustrate the feasibility of using a miniature mobile robot to navigate upon the beating heart and perform intrapericardial therapy.