Ergonomic investigation on Interventional Radiology in the era of robotic surgery

Interventional Radiology(IVR) is a minimally invasive treatment by using the small-caliber catheter and X-ray fluoroscopy. As the IVR technique can perform the dilation, occlusion and selective cannulation of the vessel and digestive canal without open-surgery, so demand and clinical cases have increased rapidly. However ergonomic problems of IVR had not been considered. Ergonomic problems during the IVR procedures of arterial catheterization are analyzed and investigated in this study. There are ergonomic problems such as neuro-muscular fatigue and asthenopia due to remote operation under X-ray fluoroscopy, small caliber catheters and inadequate working postures. Development of robotic catheter manipulator for IVR partially solved these problems. However, developments of robotic catheter manipulator are still limited such as coronary and carotid artery diseases, and manual operation by the physician still remains. Ergonomic and technological problems of IVR treatments should be further resolved through further workflow analysis of medical devices and medical staffs.