Eric Diller of U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is collaborating with medical researchers to develop dexterous, magnetically controlled microrobots that could perform minimally invasive brain surgery on children

Researchers at the University of Toronto are developing microrobots, precisely controlled by magnetic fields, that could one day be used to perform minimally invasive brain surgery on children.

The research team – co-led by Eric Diller, an associate professor of mechanical engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, and James Drake, a professor in the department of surgery in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and a pediatric neurosurgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) – says the technology represents a departure from the rigid, wired designs of most micro-surgical tools.

“Advancing surgery through an endoscope in the pediatric brain requires miniaturized versatile tools which can be precisely controlled,” says Drake. “This novel concept of using tiny, magnetized tools, controlled by robotic external magnets, shows great promise in addressing this need for both pediatric and adult patients.”

Each year 24,000 malignant brain tumours are detected in the United States. These tumours are the most common form of solid cancer in children, and surgery to remove the tumour is often the first recommended course of treatment. The surgeries can be highly invasive with a long recovery process. In some cases, when surgery via endoscope is possible, the tools may not be small or dexterous enough to perform the treatment.

The robotic catheter used for heart surgery on pigs. 

By George Dvorsky

During a recent experiment at Boston Children’s Hospital, bioengineers used a robotic catheter to reach a leaky valve insidepig hearts. But get this—the device was completely autonomous, navigating through the heart all by itself and without the benefit of a surgeon’s guiding hand. Welcome to the future of heart surgery.

New research published today in Science Robotics describes a robotic catheter that’s capable of moving autonomously inside a living body. In tests, the device navigated through beating, blood-filled pig hearts in search of its target—a leaky prosthetic valve. Once at the scene, a surgeon took over to finish the repair. The senior investigator of this project, bioengineer Pierre Dupont from Boston Children’s Hospital, said this proof-of-concept experiment suggests autonomous surgical robots could be used for complex procedures, freeing up surgeons to focus on the most difficult tasks.