Stabilizer and surgical arm design for cardiac surgery

Presents the design of a cardiac tissue stabilizing device with fixating surgical arm, developed for open-heart cardiac surgery to stabilize anastomosis sites during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting surgeries. The stabilization device is a “C”-shaped hollow ring that holds the heart using vacuum pressure. The arm is a seven link, 18-DOF, redundant, passive, serial linkage. As it attaches directly to the patient on the chest retractor, the arm has a stable mechanical ground protecting the patient from injury should they move during surgery. Measured forces and torques from two pigs´ hearts were scaled to human magnitudes to determine stabilizer lifting and arm braking requirements