In current practice, microsurgery involves dexterous manipulations on small tissues viewed through a stereo microscope. Surgeons hold special grasping and cutting instruments in a pencil-like grip, with their palms supported, to optimize fine motor control and minimize hand tremor and fatigue. Telepresence-based microsurgery has the potential to provide the surgeon with a magnified workspace in which he can comfortably work with his hands on full-size instrument handles, using normal hand motions and experiencing the feel he would expect from the magnified tissues that he sees. To address the needs for performing microsurgical procedures, the SRI telepresence surgery workstation has been combined with a pair of micromanipulator arms. The prototype microsurgery system has been tested with ex-vivo tasks similar to those required for surgical procedures, such as cutting, grasping, suturing, and knot tying. Initial animal testing has been done on a rat model in which end-to-end anastomosis of the femoral artery was completed with 10 rats, and 100% patency was obtained.
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