Evaluating Robotic Approach Techniques for the Insertion of a Straight Instrument into a Vitreoretinal Surgery Trocar

TL;DR

This study compares three robotic techniques for inserting instruments into vitreoretinal surgery trocars, finding hybrid methods with camera assistance offer higher success rates and lower physical demand than fully co-manipulated approaches.

Contribution

It evaluates and compares the effectiveness of different robotic approaches for trocar insertion in vitreoretinal surgery, highlighting the advantages of hybrid methods with camera support.

Findings

Hybrid approaches achieved over 91% success rate.

Hybrid methods completed tasks within 2 minutes.

Hybrid approaches had lower physical demand scores.

Abstract

Advances in vitreoretinal robotic surgery enable precise techniques for gene therapies. This study evaluates three robotic approaches using the 7-DoF robotic arm for docking a micro-precise tool to a trocar: fully co-manipulated, hybrid co-manipulated/teleoperated, and hybrid with camera assistance. The fully co-manipulated approach was the fastest but had a 42% success rate. Hybrid methods showed higher success rates (91.6% and 100%) and completed tasks within 2 minutes. NASA Task Load Index (TLX) assessments indicated lower physical demand and effort for hybrid approaches.