Design of the robotic system for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery in urology

Abstract

Flexible ureteroscopy is an important natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery in urology. It has the advantages of minimal invasion and high treatment efficiency. However, there remain some challenges and drawbacks in clinic. Although some robotic systems were developed to improve traditional flexible ureteroscopy, there are still some issues to be addressed, such as manipulating force sensing and intrarenal pressure monitoring. Therefore, aiming to further improve the traditional flexible ureteroscopy, in this paper we designed a novel robotic system with irrigation and sensing functions, and also conducted an animal experiment to preliminarily verify it.