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"Development of this kind of technology can really impact the economy of Maine. No one can deny that this is the way (surgeries) are going." Moshen Shahinpoor
A spider-like mechanism the size of a small terrier scuttles seamlessly across the linoleum on four legs. Beside it, a green-eyed, foot-tall figure rights itself from a prone position and trudges off. A pint-sized version of a lunar vehicle tracks along a tabletop.
From computers ringing the laboratory, University of Maine student engineers program their every move.
In this, Maine’s first biomedical engineering laboratory, these devices are the robotic building blocks of technology that has the potential to help revolutionize human surgical procedures. Mechanical engineering researcher Mohsen Shahinpoor, who directs the lab, admits that robotic surgery is in its infancy. But what he envisions for it is far-reaching.
Shahinpoor’s focus is on the development of advanced robots for endoscopy and laparoscopy procedures that are less invasive and traumatic than traditional surgeries.
“A revolution is occurring in the medical surgical field. Robotic surgery is eliminating almost 90 percent of the trauma associated with traditional surgery involving cutting people open,” says Shahinpoor, chair of the UMaine Department of Mechanical Engineering. “Eleven years ago when I was an assistant to a neurosurgeon, the skull had to be removed to get to a brain aneurism, and even then it required further penetration to get to the site and perform the necessary surgery. Heart surgery required cutting the sternum.”
Today in endoscopic robotic surgery, the surgeon makes three or four small incisions, a few millimeters in diameter, in the abdomen. Via the tiny incisions, optical fibers and associated electronics control the lighting and imaging of the internal body organs, while robotic forceps and other surgical instruments perform the necessary surgery. The surgeon sees it all on a computer screen. Such robotic surgery reduces a patient’s trauma, recovery time and risk of infection.
“I remember when no one knew what was going to happen to the patient after major brain or heart surgeries,” says Shahinpoor, who is now dedicated in his own research to developing smart materials to aid in the prevention of heart failure. “Now with robotics developed by mechanical engineers using smart materials, surgeons are more confident that patients are going to make it.”
