抄録
Minimally invasive endoscopic fetal surgery enables intrauterine intervention with smaller risk to the mother and fetus. We designed and fabricated a prototype of a fetus-supporting manipulator equipped with flexible bending/curving mechanisms and a soft balloon-based stabilizer to prevent the fetus from free-floating during endoscopic intrauterine surgery. The manipulator enables the stabilizer to reach the target sites within the uterus under ultrasound guidance. The balloon-based stabilizer can be inserted into the uterus from a small incision. The experiments using a fetus model show that the manipulator is well controlled using ultrasound guidance, and its curving mechanism and balloon-based stabilizer are clearly visible when implementing fetus support.
