Medical Devices

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Vanderbilt engineers have developed a robotic system for performing sinus and neurosurgery through the nose. This provides a less invasive way to access surgical sites in the sinuses and near the middle of the patient's head, leading to faster recovery times. The robot is modular and sterilizable with detachable cartridge-based instruments. Each instrument is a concentric tube robot, which is a needle-sized tool that can bend and elongate. The system delivers four of these instruments through a single nostril.

Various widespread diseases associated with airway constriction can be combatted using airway stents. However, such stents are either prone to clogging themselves or tend to invade neighboring tissue. Vanderbilt engineers have developed a technology that avoids both of these pitfalls by combining the use of tissue-friendly silicone with active cilia for mucus clearing.

Vanderbilt researchers have created a new multi-organs-on-chip platform that comprises Perfusion Control systems, MicroFormulators, and MicroClinical Analyzers connected via fluidic networks. The real-time combination of multiple different solutions to create customized perfusion media and the analysis of the effluents from each well are both controlled by the intelligent use of a computer-operated system of pumps and valves. This permits, for the first time, a compact, low-cost system for creating a time-dependent drug dosage profile in a tissue system inside each well.

Vanderbilt researchers have designed a laser speckle imaging device to detect parathyroid gland viability during endocrine surgery, during which otherwise healthy parathyroid glands are prone to devascularization leading to long-term hypocalcemia. Currently, the surgeon must use his or her best judgement regarding the health of the parathyroid gland. This technology removes the guess work from the decision and provides a real-time assessment of the parathyroid viability.