UT Southwestern, UT Arlington to develop magnetic surgery tools

DALLAS – July 9, 2009 – UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT Arlington have reached an agreement with Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. to develop a groundbreaking toolbox of magnetically controlled surgical instruments for minimally invasive surgery.

The investigational surgical device platform includes a wide range of magnetically controlled instruments designed to give surgeons greater maneuverability and range of motion while reducing the number of entry ports into the abdominal cavity required for surgery. The Magnetic Anchoring and Guidance System (MAGS) uses magnets outside the abdomen that attract magnets attached to novel instruments inserted inside the abdomen, allowing internal movement.

"This is powerful technology and a very innovative concept," said Dr. Daniel Scott, associate professor of surgery and director of the Southwestern Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery. "These new instruments are much better than most of the currently available technology – offering much better stability and maneuverability."

Physicians at UT Southwestern have been working over the last several years with engineers from UT Arlington's Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center. TMAC is the Texas affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Extension Partnership and part of the Automation and Robotics Research Institute. The team created several generations of prototypes that are the basis for this new technology development effort with Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.

"The investigators have done quite a bit to advance the technology. But we've reached the point where we really need an industry partner. This agreement offers a very complementary balance of clinical knowledge, engineering capability and commercial experience," said Dr. Dennis Stone, vice president for technology development at UT Southwestern. "The ultimate goal is to wind up with an enabling new technology available to surgeons that improves clinical outcomes."

Laparoscopic surgeries involve multiple instruments inserted into several small incisions rather than one large incision as with traditional surgeries. Laparoscopic surgeries have become standard procedure for removing gallbladders and kidneys, and increasingly in obesity-related surgeries; however, a limitation of laparoscopic surgery is the restricted movement of the device once inside the incision.

"A laparoscopic incision represents a fixed access point that has a limited working envelope that is conical in shape. We are working to develop the technology to move around more freely," explained Dr. Jeffrey Cadeddu, professor of urology and radiology and director of the Clinical Center for Minimally Invasive Treatment of Urologic Cancer. "The magnetic maneuverability affords a much greater range of motion inside the abdominal cavity, allowing the surgical team to more easily position instruments in their optimum locations.