The Stapedotomy is a standard ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgery, where the surgeons use surgical micro hooks and forceps to replace the stapes with a small titanium implant. However, there are some challenges with this procedure. Especially, the non-ergonomic posture of the surgeon increases the hand tremor and leads to an inaccurate positioning of the implant. This may cause hearing loss and the patient may need a revision operation. In this paper, we present the first laser sintered disposable manipulator for ENT surgery, which allows the surgeon to move a micro hook in three directions via a joystick console, while his/her hands are located on an armrest. This may increase the surgical outcome by enhancing the ergonomics and therefore may reduce the number of revision operations. We show that the fabrication cost of the single-use robot does not increase the operation expenses drastically. To conclude, our preliminary evaluation with a middle ear phantom indicates that a basic surgical maneuver can be performed via the presented robotic system.

In this manuscript we propose a robot with a novel kinematics and a novel imaging concept for a transcutaneous ultrasound probe. The underlying goal is to provide a laparoscopic surgeon intraoperative real-time images from within the surgical field without additional man power. The robot is manually controlled by the surgeon through a joystick console. The device is divided into two separate chambers. One is filled with pressurized water and incorporates an transcutaneous ultrasound probe. It is covered with a flexible silicone membrane that is in contact with the patient. The second cavity incorporates the kinematics and is filled with pressurized air. The kinematics has four degrees of freedom (two translational and two rotatory). In this paper, we provide the mathematical description for the direct as well as for the indirect kinematics along with a validation experiment.

In this article, a new Micromanipulator System (MMS-II) for middle ear surgery is presented. The purpose of this work was to develop a simple but effective manipulator that would enable the surgeon to move standard surgical instruments in a precise way even under non-ergonomic conditions. The MMS-II is lightweight, small, and easy to use; it requires no PC, besides a small microcontroller-based joystick console. Such features, together with a practicable sterilization concept and the availability of a multiplicity of surgical instruments, allow the system to be used in standard surgical procedures.