Inner Ear Surgery and Robotics
Nikolas Blevins, MD, Kenneth Salisbury PhD, , David Camarillo MS, Byongho Park PhD, Fritz Prinz PhD
Because of its size, location and considerable fragility, the inner ear has long been inaccessible to direct, non-destructive surgical manipulation. We are in the process of designing scalable robotic surgical instruments designed to allow inner ear surgery. These devices are intended to allow the surgeon the ability to see and feel inner ear structures, and afford the dexterity required for manipulation of tissues at this small scale. The use of robotic control technology will scale down motions of the human hand, to allow navigation and dissection to proceed at the small scale necessary. The successful achievement of this goal will open a new frontier in otology. It will allow the development of more effective inner ear prostheses and regenerative techniques, and will enable new therapeutic opportunities for a host of common otologic disorders. This work is the result of a collaboration between Otolaryngology, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science.
