The Luca™ robot has successfully performed its first ophthalmic procedures on patients
AcuSurgical, a 2019 winner of the Companies And Campus program and the developer of Luca™, the world’s first dual-arm ophthalmic robot, has reached a major milestone: the successful completion of the first surgeries performed using its robot. The startup aims to revolutionize surgery for retinal diseases—among the most delicate and complex procedures in ophthalmology—by offering an unprecedented level of precision.
Co-founded in 2020 by Christophe Spuhler and two researchers from the LIRMM, Philippe Poignet and Yassine Haddab, along with two vitreoretinal surgeons from the Saint-Étienne University Hospital and Jean Monnet University, Philippe Gain and Gilles Thuret, AcuSurgical has developed the world’s first bimanual ophthalmic robot. The first surgeries assisted by Luca™ have just been performed at the University Hospital of Ghent in Belgium. This marksa major milestone in the development of this innovation: “For some thirty years, the laboratory has been developing robots designed to assist surgeons in their procedures. It is a great source of satisfaction to see the Luca™ robot progress to the patient trial phase. This is the first validation step before applying for certification in the European and American markets,” enthuses Philippe Poignet.
After SATT AxLR secured its first seed funding in 2018, Christophe Spuhler and the two researchers were selected for the program offered by the University of Marseille: “Following the idea development phase, the Companies and Campus program enabled us to hire, at a crucial stage in the project’s development, a third engineer to work on features related to robot guidance using computer vision .”
The robot enhances procedural capabilities and provides the surgeon with greater control, allowing them to refine their dexterity and improve the quality of the procedures performed. “Initially, our goal is to perform surgical procedures with greater precision, and in the future, we hope the robot will be able to perform subretinal injections, which are currently very difficult to perform due to the level of precision required,” says Yassine Haddab.
Before the trial phase, the Luca™ robot had to undergo several years of development to ensure that no unexpected movements would endanger the patient’s vision. This phase also involves training and adapting surgeons to the robot: “The teams need to become familiar with the robot, because a machine like this changes the way teams are used to working,” the two researchers explain. An innovation that could revolutionize the lives of 300 million people worldwide who currently suffer from retinal disease.