Medical Design Briefs - July 2022 - 36

Tack tests are another functional test
used to demonstrate how quickly an adhesive
bond is formed. A pressuresensitive
adhesive is put in contact with a
known substrate at a given load for a set
amount of time in order to determine
the load required to separate the two.
One way to achieve this is by using an automatic
XY translation stage. The adhesive
patch is secured to the stage, and an
upper probe with a flat surface is used as
the substrate surface. The stage automatically
moves between test points and
runs the same test procedure on each,
providing the adhesive strength across
the full contact area of the patch.
Additionally, preconditioning materials
under temperature, moisture, or other
conditions can also provide useful information
about how an adhesive's
properties might change. Temperature
or environmental chambers set to mimic
body temperature, or slightly elevated or
lower temperatures, provide other useful
test circumstances under which to
evaluate these materials.
n Conclusion
As wearable devices become more
prevalent, innovation and standardization
of their mechanical testing
continues to develop. Manufacturers
of testing equipment must work with
global biomedical companies to ensure
that these developing testing needs
can be met.
This article was written by Meredith Bernstein,
Applications Engineer at Instron, Norwood,
MA. For more information, visit
http://info.hotims.com/82323-341.
Joystick-Operated Robot Could Help Surgeons Treat
Stroke Remotely
The system could provide
teleoperated endovascular
treatment to patients
during the critical
time window after a
stroke begins.
MIT
Cambridge, MA
A telerobotic system helps surgeons
quickly and remotely treat patients experiencing
a stroke or aneurysm. With a
modified joystick, surgeons in one hospital
may control a robotic arm at another
location to safely operate on a
patient during a critical window of time
that could save the patient's life and
preserve their brain function.
The robotic system, whose movement
is controlled through magnets, was designed
by MIT engineers to remotely assist
in endovascular intervention - a
procedure performed in emergency situations
to treat strokes caused by a blood
clot. Such interventions normally require
a surgeon to manually guide a thin
wire to the clot, where it can physically
clear the blockage or deliver drugs to
break it up.
One limitation of such procedures is
accessibility: Neurovascular surgeons are
often based at major medical institutions
that are difficult to reach for patients in
remote areas, particularly during the
golden hour - the critical period after a
stroke's onset, during which treatment
should be administered to minimize any
damage to the brain.
36
MIT engineers developed a telerobotic system to help surgeons remotely treat patients experiencing
stroke or aneurysm. With a modified joystick, surgeons may control a robotic arm at another hospital to
operate on a patient. (Credit: MIT)
The MIT team envisions that its robotic
system could be installed at smaller
hospitals and remotely guided by trained
surgeons at larger medical centers. The
system includes a medical-grade robotic
arm with a magnet attached to its wrist.
With a joystick and live imaging, an operator
can adjust the magnet's orientation
and manipulate the arm to guide a soft
and thin magnetic wire through arteries
and vessels.
The researchers demonstrated the system
in a phantom, a transparent model
with vessels replicating complex arteries
of the brain. With just an hour of trainwww.medicaldesignbriefs.com
ing,
neurosurgeons were able to remotely
control the robot's arm to guide a wire
through a maze of vessels to reach target
locations in the model.
" We imagine, instead of transporting a
patient from a rural area to a large city,
they could go to a local hospital where
nurses could set up this system. A neurosurgeon
at a major medical center could
watch live imaging of the patient and use
the robot to operate in that golden hour.
That's our future dream, " says Xuanhe
Zhao, a professor of mechanical engineering
and of civil and environmental
engineering at MIT.
Medical Design Briefs, July 2022

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Medical Design Briefs - July 2022

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