Key result
HeartLander prototype successfully navigates the epicardium of beating porcine hearts at ~8 cm/min.
Why the study?
Minimally invasive beating-heart intrapericardial interventions currently require cardiac stabilization and lung manipulation, which increase patient trauma.
A novel epicardial crawling robotic device demonstrated feasibility for locomotion on the beating heart in a porcine model, potentially enabling minimally invasive intrapericardial interventions without cardiac stabilization.
Demonstrates preclinical epicardial locomotion feasibility; leaves open translation to human minimally invasive interventions.
The development and preliminary testing of a device for facilitating minimally invasive beating-heart intrapericardial interventions are described. We propose the concept of an endoscopic robotic device that adheres to the epicardium by suction and navigates by crawling like an inchworm to any position on the surface under the control of a surgeon. This approach obviates cardiac stabilization, lung deflation, differential lung ventilation, and reinsertion of laparoscopic tools for accessing different treatment sites, thus offering the possibility of reduced trauma to the patient. The device has a working channel through which various tools can be introduced for treatment. The current prototype demonstrated successful prehension, turning, and locomotion on beating hearts in a limited number of trials in a porcine model.
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Riviere et al. (2004) studied Healthy animal model for beating heart intervention (n=3). HeartLander prototype device was evaluated on Successful prehension, turning, and locomotion on beating hearts. The HeartLander prototype successfully demonstrated prehension, turning, and locomotion on the epicardium of beating hearts in a porcine model at a speed of approximately 8 cm/min.