In this paper, we describe computer aided surgery based on virtual endoscopy. Virtualized endoscope system (VES) can visualize 3D medical images such as CT or MRI images and generate virtual endoscopic views. Since 3D virtual images generated using VES help to intuitively understand 3D anatomical structures, VES is widely used as a tool for assisting surgery. We have been studied computer aided surgery based on VES. This paper presents several applications of VES to surgical assistance such as laparoscopic surgery, neurosurgery, and robotic surgery.

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This paper introduces the author’s recent research focus, “soft mechanism” in medical applications. In recent years, robotic technology has been actively introduced to medical devices, and a number of clinical applications have been commercialized. The soft mechanism let us have advantages on mechanical implementation, such as compactness, cleanness, and lightweight within a highly accurate motion. The paper briefly introduces the background of robotic technology employed in medical applications, and shows examples of medical robots based on the author’s “soft mechanism”.

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In coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), surgeons use a stabilizer to suppress the heart surface excursion locally. However, it was reported that there is a significant residual motion on the operation area of the heart surface that is larger than the required accuracy for suturing. Therefore we developed a new cardiac active stabilizer intended to reduce this residual motion. Our system consists of a voice coil motor, a laser displacement sensor, an acceleration sensor, and a computer. The voice coil motor is driven by feedbacking the residual motion which is measured by the laser displacement sensor. After convergence of the residual motion, the laser displacement sensor is taken off from the operative field and the voice coil motor keeps driving using the recorded output waveform and a timing which is measured by the acceleration sensor. We performed both a phantom experiment and an animal experiment. As a result of the phantom experiment, we confirmed that our device enables to reduce the residual motion to 20 %. In the animal experiment, the residual motion was reduced to 50 %.

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