Flexible tool to boost recovery

A NEW SURGICAL PATH: Raynham-based Medrobotics' flexible robotic surgical device, being demonstrated by mechanical engineer Ian Darisse, left, and biomedical engineer Rich Kuenzler, allows surgeons better access to body parts. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
A NEW SURGICAL PATH: Raynham-based Medrobotics' flexible robotic surgical device, being demonstrated by mechanical engineer Ian Darisse, left, and biomedical engineer Rich Kuenzler, allows surgeons better access to body parts. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Medrobotics Corp.’s accomplishment in developing the first flexible robotic device for surgery has been packed with a healthy dose of not only innovation, but patience.

It took nine years – with human trials in Europe and significant costs, according to Vice President of Marketing Tom Patzelt – to get the product to the U.S. market, with Federal Drug Administration clearance coming this past July. Now, the Raynham company’s invention, the Flex Robotic System, has put the private firm in a class all its own.

What does the Flex Robotic System give surgeons, and in turn, patients? Quite simply, accessibility to parts of the body during surgery that are no longer limited by the doctor’s line of sight. This seemingly simple gain could produce huge value in the world of medicine.

One of the device’s major benefits, due to surgeons’ new ability to go around organs they previously could not, is its ability to allow a patient a new breed of less-invasive surgery, Patzelt said. The system has been used in Europe on surgeries of the throat, tongue and larynx, he said.

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“Some of these operations are conducted through the side of the neck or through the face to access the tissue. Our robot enables these patients now to be operated on through the mouth, without a major incision,” he explained. As a result, hospital stays are shorter, recovery time is shorter and costs are lessened.

What adds to the Flex Robotic System’s appeal is its relatively short learning curve. “We have designed the Flex to easily integrate into the surgeon’s practice, operating room and hospital,” after training, Patzelt said.

Popular Science magazine gave the Flex Robotic System a “Best of What’s New Award” last year as a top innovator.

Medrobotics was founded in 2006 by Professor Howie Choset of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. Cardiac surgeon Dr. Marco Zenati is co-founder. As the company got ready to take its invention commercial, moving to New England, said Patzelt, with its medical-device infrastructure, just made sense. •

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