Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects

Although efforts are being made to prevent heart disease, it continues to be one of the leading causes of death around the world. To address the high cost and high morbidity rates, scientists have been studying ways of reducing the invasiveness of heart surgeries by minimizing incision size and performing surgery on the beating heart. In Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS), the instruments and a camera enter the body through small incisions (called ports). This approach has been shown to reduce patient recovery time, length of hospital stay and morbidity rates. The difficulties created by the reduced access conditions in MIS have been solved by the development of remotely controlled robotic manipulators like the da Vinci? Surgical System from Intuitive Surgical, Inc. Although the use of this technology continues to progress, improper planning of an MIS procedure can require conversion to open surgery, increasing the probability of cardiovascular events, morbidity and mortality. To address these issues, the proposed research will focus on developing an optimal planning strategy based on patient specific models that reflect intra-operative conditions, and robot workspace optimization for minimally invasive cardiac surgery. The outcome of this research will be a reduction in surgical time and in the number of conversions to open surgery caused by poor access or reduced dexterity. The proposed research will involve the following steps: develop patient-specific thorax models that reflect intraoperative conditions; develop a graphics-based simulation environment for the surgical robot; develop patient selection measures and algorithms for minimally invasive cardiac surgery; and develop performance measures for minimally invasive surgical robots and their application in locating the ports. These elements will be integrated into one surgical planning system and validated by comparing the predicted and actual outcomes of cardiac procedures. The end result will be a comprehensive optimal planning strategy that will result in more efficient planning of cardiac surgery by determining patient suitability and optimal port locations.