Corneal Suturing Robot Capable of Producing Sutures With Desired Shape for Corneal Transplantation Surgery

In corneal transplantation, 16 submillimeter-sized sutures are generated around the circular-shaped graft cornea. A major challenge in corneal transplantation is the generation of uniformly shaped sutures, where the suture shapes need to be changed depending on the patient. In this study, a corneal suturing robot that can produce sutures of the desired shape with high uniformity is described. The proposed robot manipulates the corneal tissue deformation before inserting the needle for suture shape control. A simulation using the finite element method was proposed to predict the suture shape. The suturing experiment was conducted on a porcine model, and the result was compared with the simulation. As a result, the proposed robot was able to generate sutures with a standard deviation of 108 $\mu$ m in length and 36 $\mu$ m in depth. The mean absolute error between the simulation and the experiment was 95 $\mu$ m in length and 31 $\mu$ m in depth. This is the first study to suggest a method for controlling the suture shape and quantitatively analyzing it in ophthalmic surgery.