HUMAN system for neurosurgery which has an insertion part of 10 mm in diameter housing three manipulators and an endoscope

Surgery using manipulator systems for medical treatment has recently attracted considerable attention as a method for realizing minimally invasive surgery. In the field of bellybutton surgery, some manipulator systems for medical treatments are used in Europe and the United States. However, it is inappropriate to apply these systems to meurosurgery. This is because the size of the manipulators is too large, and only one of them can be used in one insertion part. To solve this problem, we developed the HUMAN system which has an insertion part with a diameter of 10 mm and contains one endoscope and three manipulators. A clinical application using this system took place in August, 2002, and ended in success. Since the manipulator is small and an operation is possible from one small incision, this system is effective in realizing minimally invasive neurosurgery. In this paper, we propose the concept for realizing minimally invasive surgery, and discuss the mechanism of the system which was developed based on this concept.