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Home Clinical Services Center for Robotic Surgery Research
Flower Research
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The Karp Research Building at Children's Hospital Boston
The Center for Robotic Surgery's robust research program is focused on finding safe and innovative applications for this technology. Children's Hospital Boston is one of the only pediatric hospitals to perform clinical assessments and outcome analysis - measuring and analyzing the outcomes of robotic surgeries versus open surgeries to ensure the use of the surgical robot is always advantageous to the patient.

A second surgical robot, housed in the hospital's new 680,000 square-foot state-of-the-art research building, is dedicated exclusively to training surgeons and developing and perfecting new robotic procedures and surgical techniques before they are applied to patients.

Researchers from Children's developed and perfected the technique for performing robotically-assisted pediatric pyeloplasties, and have recently completed an 18-month study that showed that the same technique is effective for bladder augmentation procedures. Results from research conducted here have also led to advances and refinements in the robotic equipment, making it more suitable for use in pediatric surgery.

Studies now underway include:

Cardiovascular surgery
Using robotic surgery, researchers are pioneering methods to operate on the beating heart. Most cardiac surgery requires the use of a heart-lung bypass machine to keep blood circulating in the patient's body while the surgeon works on the still and empty heart. Unfortunately, shutting down the heart, even briefly, carries risks. While robotic technology allows surgeons to operate on a beating heart, the blood flowing throughout the organ impairs visibility. Researchers are working to combine robotic surgery with the use of 3-D ultrasound to allow them to "see" through the blood, correcting problems while the heart beats.
In utero congenital obstructive uropathy surgery
Investigators are studying the use of robotically-assisted surgery to correct congenital malformations of the urinary tract in utero, before the condition causes irreparable kidney damage or fetal death. Robotically-assisted surgery holds promise for this procedure and potentially other fetal surgeries because it is extremely precise, but also minimally-invasive, which reduces the chance of harming the mother or fetus.
Neurosurgery
Investigators are working to develop a microrobot for use in complicated neurosurgeries. Since existing robotic equipment is much too large for use in neurosurgery, researchers have developed and are perfecting a tiny snake-like robotic device that will be small enough to use in the fluid spaces around the brain.
Postoperative pain
This study is designed to compare pain levels in patients who have had minimally invasive surgery with those who have had the same procedure using traditional open surgery methods.
Suture quality
Using a pyeloplasty procedure, researchers are comparing the quality of sutures placed during a robotically-assisted procedure with sutures from a traditional open surgery, as well as sutures using standard laparoscopic equipment.

While the study is not yet complete, early results show that sutures placed during a robotically-assisted pyeloplasty are superior in the short- and long-term to those placed using standard laparoscopic equipment, and comparable to or better than those placed during a traditional open surgical procedure. Researchers believe the improvements result from the enhanced flexibility, mobility, and precision of the robotic equipment.

Ureteral reimplantation
Researchers are exploring the use of robotically-assisted surgery to perform this procedure, which creates a new, longer tunnel for the ureter to pass through the bladder wall.

Find out more about our Robotic Surgery Research and Training Center at www.pedsrobotics.com.

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