The Medrobotics FLEX Robotics System recently acquired by University of Kentucky

The Medrobotics FLEX Robotics system is a new technology that is transforming the landscape of transoral robotic surgery. The technology was recently acquired by the University of Kentucky. The FLEX Robotic system gives physicians the ability to access anatomical locations that were previously difficult or impossible to reach with minimally invasive techniques.

Unlike other current robotic platforms, like the daVinci, it does not require direct “line of site visualization of the tumor. The FLEX robotic system uses a highly articulated multi-linked scope that can be steered along non-linear pathways to reach more distal, difficult sites. Once positioned, the scope becomes a stable surgical platform through which the surgeon can pass flexible surgical intruments.

“This instrumentation has the capacity to transform head and neck robotics and operative laryngology,” says Dr. Thomas Gal, Professor of Otolaryngology and Director of Head and Neck Robotics at UK. “In addition to procedures which can be performed using the daVInci, we now have access to patients who may not have been candidates for conventional TORS, as well as tumors of the hypopharynx, larynx, and even the cervical espophagus in ways never seen before.”