Complex microsurgical procedures such as reconstructive surgery after tumor resection, finger replantation after trauma, lymphatic surgery after mastectomy, or extracranial-intracranial bypass surgery to prevent subsequent stroke can only be performed by surgeons with microsurgical skills, since the structures to be sutured are well below 1 mm in diameter. Currently, it takes years of training to acquire the required extremely precise motor skills and even then, due to its complexity, treatment outcomes can be highly variable. Hence, there is a high demand for more access to standardized high-quality microsurgical treatments across all specialties in the clinic to give patients the highest standard of care.
The EIC supports the development and market introduction of Microsure technology. Microsure develops technology in the shape of robotic assistance enabling surgeons to perform these very complex microsurgical procedures with more precision, flexibility, ease and control, ultimately reducing the time to obtain expert skills and standardizing high-quality treatment outcomes. More specifically, Microsure is developing the next generation microsurgical robot: MUSA-3. The MEETMUSA project aims to accelerate introduction of MUSA-3 to the market so that you as a hospital, as a surgeon, or as a patient can benefit sooner from this state-of-the-art technology.
Plastic surgeons from Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC+) started a collaboration with engineers from Technical University Eindhoven (TU/e) in 2011 to develop a surgical robot dedicated for open microsurgery. This collaboration resulted in a first prototype as part of a PhD project. In 2016, Microsure was founded as spin-off from the TU/e and further developed the prototype into a second-generation clinical prototype and obtained CE mark. Its unique feature is the human anatomy-based design in which the movements of the robotic arms provide similar dexterity as a human arm and the integrated gripper mechanism resembles the fingers and enables the use of existing microsurgical instruments. Although this MUSA-2 system was able to overcome Da Vinci’s limitations through its compatibility with microsurgical instruments and surgical microscopes, some usability aspects became limiting factors, besides issues with production, servicing and maintenance. The new MUSA-3 robot product will therefore include improved hardware, software and design to increase the usability, serviceability, and manufacturability, thus making it ready for commercial roll-out.
