The retina in Acusurgical's sights
Based at the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics (LIRMM), the start-up Acusurgical is working on the design of a new medical robot. Its specialty: retinal surgery. This innovation promises to revolutionize the field by increasing surgical precision tenfold.
“Some types of microsurgery on the eye require such precision that, even today, they remain the preserve of a select few surgeons.” And therefore a minority of patients. This observation by Yassine Haddab, a specialist in precision robotics and researcher at LIRMM, forms the basis for the Montpellier-based start-up Acusurgical.
It all started with Christoph Spuhler, an engineer from Zurich who worked at Med Tech, Bertin Nahoum's company. Through his various experiences, he saw the potential to expand the field of eye microsurgery to new pathologies with the help of robotics."Operating on the retina is a very risky procedure and sometimes cannot even be done by hand." His idea was to design a robot capable of reproducing human movements with greater precision and safety and without the slightest tremor.
From robotics to clinical use
In 2017, Christoph Spuhler contacted LIRMM, a laboratory renowned for its expertise in surgical robotics. He began working with Yassine Haddab and Philippe Poignet, a specialist in surgical robotics and director of LIRMM. In May 2018, thanks to funding from SATT Axlr, the three of them began the maturation project that would lead, two years later, to the creation of the start-up Acusurgical. They are co-founders with two surgeons from Saint Etienne who joined the team in the meantime to contribute their clinical expertise. In addition to the recruitment of three engineers funded by the maturation project, Muse provided funding for a 12-month period to hire a specialist in OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) imaging as part of the Companies on Campus program.
The Rectinoct project combines imaging, robotics, and, of course, the surgeon's expertise. A microscope captures an image of the patient's retina and transmits it via a screen to the surgeon, who performs the usual surgical procedures. Instead of surgical instruments in their hands,surgeons use a joystick integrated into a console, which is connected to a robot that instantly performs the surgical procedure on the patient. "The robot can perform ten times better than a surgeon's hand," explains Philippe Poignet. "It allows us to go much further in terms of precision and safety."
Extend to other conditions
The result: the possibility of not only treating patients better, but also treating more patients."This opens up therapeutic possibilities for conditions that could not previously be treated with surgery," continues the director. Epiretinal membrane (ERM), macular holes, diabetic retinopathy, and AMD (age-related macular degeneration) are all conditions that could benefit from this innovation.
Tested on rabbits at Saint Etienne University Hospital last February, the first human trials of this technology are scheduled for late 2021, with commercialization planned for 2023."We hope that the CE marking procedure allowing it to be placed on the European market will be validated in 2022. We are targeting the international market, so we will subsequently submit an FDA marking application for the US market," explains Christoph Spuhler, who, like his robot, is opening up new horizons in retinal surgery.