Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR)

Overview

Canadian Surgical Technologies & Advanced Robotics (CSTAR) is a collaborative research and education program of London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), Lawson Health Research Institute, Western University and St. Joseph’s Health Care London.

About

CSTAR, a 22,500 square foot facility located in the Legacy Research Pavilion of LHSC, integrates research, development, preclinical and clinical testing, validation, commercialization and clinical implementation of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) technologies and robotics.

CSTAR provides an environment that enables meaningful collaboration of researchers, engineers and surgery clinicians who, together, identify solutions to current and future challenges in surgical care.

To accomplish all of the above-mentioned initiatives, CSTAR is divided into two research groups, medical mechatronics and robotics surgery.

The medical mechatronics division of CSTAR focuses on the development of novel MIS technologies and the procedures with which to use them.

The robotics surgery division of CSTAR focuses on perfecting already existing procedures and the application of MIS technologies developed in the mechatronics division. CSTAR provides world-class acute and chronic laboratory facilities that support preclinical testing and validation of new MIS technologies.

CSTAR interacts with London’s commercialization community to facilitate delivery of MIS technologies to market. Through this integration, CSTAR ‘closes the gap’ between newly developed, effective MIS technologies and their implementation and routine use in clinical care.

Medical Mechatronics

Medical Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, control engineering, systems design engineering and computer engineering to create useful products.

The medical mechatronics division at CSTAR focuses on the development of novel MIS technologies and the procedures in which to use them.

Major Research Activities

Minimally invasive robot-assisted tumour ablative therapies for lung cancer
Dual master-slave system with force reflection
A sensorized instrument-based skills assessment and training system for minimally invasive surgery
Design, construction and control of a micro manipulator for prostate brachytherapy
Haptics enabled robot-assisted active catheter insertion
Minimally invasive lung tumour localization
Trajectory generation for robot-assisted needle insertion in soft tissue
Development of high dexterity instruments for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery
Bone cutting in minimally invasive orthopaedic surgery
Cognitive science for surgical technologies design, evaluation and training
Modeling of respiratory lung tumour motion
Arthroscopic skills development and assessment for orthopaedic knee surgery
A multi-screen hands-free pointer system for training in minimally invasive surgery

Robotics Surgery

Robotics is the science and technology of robots, and their design, manufacture and application.

The robotics surgery division at CSTAR focuses on perfecting already existing procedures and the application of MIS technologies developed in the mechatronics division. CSTAR provides world-class acute and chronic laboratory facilities that support preclinical testing and validation of new MIS technologies.

Major Research Activities

Rese Novel techniques and tools for minimally-invasive, beating heart surgery
Port placement optimization for robot-assisted cardiac surgery
Limiting atrial fibrillation to one side of the heart
Robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery in urology: A review of surgical outcomes
Image guidance for beating heart cardiac surgery
Biomaterials in the urinary tract
A multi-centre trial comparing percutaneous coronary intervention to surgical coronary revascularization in diabetic patients (Freedom Trial)
Non-invasive characterization of complex sub-mitral valve anatomy for robotically assisted minimally invasive surgical mitral valve repair
Multi-centre prospecitve evaluation of elastic restraint to lessen the effects of heart failure (PEERLESS HF Trial)
Study of provoked ischemia revascularization before ICD therapy (Spirit Trial)
Randomized trial for the treatment of multi-vessel coronary artery disease with hybrid coronary artery revascularization, multi-vessel percutaneous coronary intervention or conventional coronary artery surgical revascularization
CABG off or on pump revascularization (CORONARY)
The safety of laparoscopic hepatectomyarch focus