Abstract
• Background: Experimental protocol in our laboratory routinely requires the precise placement of instruments at, or near, the retina. Although manipulators for placing an instrument within the eye presently exist, none of the designs were satisfactory due to limitations on size, accuracy and operability. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a novel six degree of freedom manipulator designed specifically for retinal microsurgery. • Methods: The manipulator is parallel in structure and provides submicrometer positioning of an instrument within the constrained environment of the eye. The position of an instrument attached to the manipulator is commanded by the operator using a hand-held trackball. A computer controller interprets the trackball input and moves the manipulator in an intuitive manner according to mathematically constrained modes of operation. • Results: Over 50 retinal vessels in the live, anesthetized cat have been successfully cannulated for pressure measurement and drug injection using the described manipulator and micropuncture techniques. The targeted vessels ranged in internal diameter from 20 to 130 pm. • Conclusion: This device has applications in microsurgery where tremor and fatigue limit the performance of an unaided hand and where mechanically constrained manipulators are inappropriate due to size and operative constraints.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allf BE, Juan E de Jr (1987) In vivo cannulation of retinal vessels. Graefe's Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 225:221–225
Attariwala R, Giebs CP, Glucksberg MR (1994) The influence of elevated intraocular pressure on vascular pressures in the cat retina. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 35:1019–1025
Bose B, Kalra AK, Thurkral S, Sood A, Guha SK, Anand S (1992) Tremor compensation for robotics assisted microsurgery. Proc Ann Int'l Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 14:1067–1068
Charles S (1994) Dexterity enhancement for surgery. Proc First Int'l Symp Med Robotics Comput Assist Surg 2:145–160
Glucksberg MR, Dunn R (1993) Direct measurement of retinal microvascular pressure in the live anesthetized cat. Microvasc Res 45:158–165
Glucksberg MR, Dunn R, Giebs CP (1993) In vivo micropuncture of retinal vessels. Graefe's Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 231:405–407
Grace KW (1995) Kinematic design of an ophthalmic surgery robot and feature extracting bilateral manipulation. Ph D thesis, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill
Grace KW, Colgate JE, Glucksberg MR, Chun JH (1993) A six degree of freedom micromanipulator for ophthalmic surgery. Proc IEEE Int'l Conf Robotics Automation 1:630–635
Deleted in production
Hunter IW, Doukoglou D, Lafontaine SR, Charette PG, Jones LA, Sagar MA, Mallinson GD, Hunter PJ (1993) A teleoperated microsurgical robot and associated virtual environment for eye surgery. Presence 2:265–280
Jensen PS, Glucksberg MR, Colgate JE, Grace KW, Attariwala R (1994) Robotic micromanipulator for ophthalmic surgery. Proc First Int'l Symp Med Robotics Comput Assist Surg 2:204–210
Merlet J-P (1991) Articulated device, for use in particular in robotics. US patent no. 5,053,687
Merlet J-P (1992) Direct kinematics and assembly modes of parallel manipulators. Int J Robotics Res 11:150–162
Pournaras CJ, Shonat RD, Munoz J-L, Petrig BL (1991) New ocular micromanipulator for measurements of retinal and vitreous physiologic parameters in the mammalian eye. Exp Eye Res 53:723–727
Steward D (1965) A platform with 6 degrees of freedom. Proc Inst Mech Eng 180:371–386
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jensen, P.S., Grace, K.W., Attariwala, R. et al. Toward robot-assisted vascular microsurgery in the retina. Graefe's Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 235, 696–701 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01880668
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01880668