Would you let a robot drill into your skull?
For some cochlear implant patients, a robot drills the path to the inner ear, along a route planned on their own scan.
The story
A cochlear implant needs a path to the inner ear, through bone and right past the nerve that moves your face, so the room for error is tiny. With CASCINATION’s system the work starts on a screen: software called OTOPLAN turns the patient’s CT scan into a 3D model of the inner ear and works out the angle in. The robot, HEARO, then follows that plan, drilling a tunnel 1.8 millimetres wide that passes on average 0.4 millimetres from the facial nerve. It monitors the nerve throughout, senses the force on the drill, and imaging confirms the safety distances along the way. The implant then goes in along the route planned on the patient’s own scan.
Three things to know
The hard part of a cochlear implant is the path: through bone, millimetres from the nerve that moves your face.
OTOPLAN plans the route on your own CT scan. HEARO drills a 1.8 mm tunnel along it while monitoring the facial nerve.
The robot doesn’t replace the surgeon. It makes the plan precise.
Sources
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Made by motionfarm from public sources. For education only. Not medical advice.
