Chinese researchers have developed a surgical robot that can perform complex brain imaging nearly 30 per cent faster than traditional manual methods, according to a study published earlier this year.

The feat marks a milestone for the world’s first approved cerebrovascular intervention system.

In a head-to-head at the prestigious Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), a young surgeon using the robotic system shaved nine minutes off the time required for a standard manual procedure.

“Preliminary clinical application shows that the YDHB-NS01 robot-assisted system is feasible for diagnostic cerebral angiography and shows early indications of safety and comparable procedural performance to conventional manual methods,” lead author Dr Zhao Yuanli wrote in the study published in the Chinese Neurosurgical Journal on January 30.

Cerebral vascular imaging is a must for the treatment of many brain diseases, but it is a difficult procedure for both patient and doctor. In conventional methods, the neurologist must manually thread a thin guide-wire from a patient’s thigh up to the brain’s blood vessels under X-ray fluoroscopy.

Manual surgery has inherent limitations: hands inevitably tremble, and the heavy lead gowns and collars worn by doctors for radiation protection increase physical strain. Long-term radiation exposure also poses health risks to doctors.

The robotic system avoids these issues. It operates stably with no mechanical or system failures. Operators have reported smooth catheter and guide-wire delivery, stable manipulator fixation, responsive control handles and good force feedback.

In their study, Zhao and his team found that with robotic help and just two training sessions, the same operator was able to improve safety and reliability of the procedure while reducing surgical time by 29 per cent – or from an average of 38 minutes to 27 minutes.

From May to August last year, 25 patients underwent robot-assisted cerebral angiography, while another 25 underwent manual angiography performed by the same operator during the same period at PUMCH.

The institution, long regarded as China’s premier hospital, attracts the country’s top medical students and clinicians. But in the comparison, the robotic arms assisted by intelligent machines outperformed human hands.

Both procedures were performed by the same young neurosurgeon, who had less than three years of independent experience in neurovascular angiography.

For the manual procedures, he wore a lead apron and worked directly in the radiation environment, while in the robot-assisted procedures he operated via a screen and remote manipulator from an adjacent room.

All 50 procedures were completed successfully, with a technical and clinical success rate of 100 per cent in both robotic and manual sets.

All target vessels were clearly visualised, meeting diagnostic requirements.

“No differences were observed between the two groups in fluoroscopy time, patient radiation dose, contrast agent dose or total angiography room time,” said Zhao, a leading cerebrovascular surgeon who has pioneered neuronavigation-guided minimally invasive surgery for brain tumours and complex vascular diseases in China.

The YDHB-NS01 system was developed domestically, and produced in the northern province of Hebei. It is China’s first approved vascular intervention robot and the world’s first approved cerebrovascular intervention robot.

The system previously performed 257 angiograms at three Chinese medical centres in 2020, achieving a 100 per cent success rate.