Toward User-Friendly Robotic Assistance for Enhancing Accuracy and Safety of Reconstructive Microsurgery

Reconstructive microsurgery enables extraordinary procedures such as breast reconstruction, face allograft, or torn member saving. However, several gestures require a precision that goes beyond human dexterity. An ergonomic robotic assistance is being developed to push back the current frontiers of microsurgery and scale it down to the submillimeter scale of so-called super-microsurgery. The robot would be integrated transparently and intuitively into standard procedures performed under a microscope, so as to make supermicrosurgery safer with limited additional cost.