A Feasible Workflow for Retinal Vein Cannulation in Ex Vivo Porcine Eyes with Robotic Assistance

TL;DR

This study introduces a robot-assisted workflow for retinal vein cannulation in ex vivo pig eyes, addressing human limitations and demonstrating an 83.33% success rate in a preliminary validation.

Contribution

It presents a novel robot-assisted procedure workflow for retinal vein cannulation, integrating intraoperative OCT verification and validated on ex vivo porcine eyes.

Findings

83.33% successful cannulation rate in tests

Workflow effectively overcomes human physiological limitations

Feasibility demonstrated in ex vivo porcine eyes

Abstract

A potential Retinal Vein Occlusion (RVO) treatment involves Retinal Vein Cannulation (RVC), which requires the surgeon to insert a microneedle into the affected retinal vein and administer a clot-dissolving drug. This procedure presents significant challenges due to human physiological limitations, such as hand tremors, prolonged tool-holding periods, and constraints in depth perception using a microscope. This study proposes a robot-assisted workflow for RVC to overcome these limitations. The test robot is operated through a keyboard. An intraoperative Optical Coherence Tomography (iOCT) system is used to verify successful venous puncture before infusion. The workflow is validated using 12 ex vivo porcine eyes. These early results demonstrate a successful rate of 10 out of 12 cannulations (83.33%), affirming the feasibility of the proposed workflow.