Initial experience with a telerobotic system to remotely navigate and automatically reposition standard steerable EP catheters.

The use of robotic systems in cardiac interventional procedures is growing. The insertion and maneuvering in the human body of electrophysiology (EP) catheters is currently carried out manually under fluoroscopic guidance, resulting in operator fatigue and prolonged x-ray exposure. We report our initial animal experience with a novel telerobotic system (TS) to remotely navigate and automatically reposition standard steerable EP catheters within the heart. We developed a TS able to guide, as a "robotic hand," EP catheters without the need of dedicated catheters and cumbersome devices. During tests on three sheep, catheter navigation and repositioning to 12 predefined endocardial targets were previously performed by conventional manual procedure and then using the TS implemented with an automatic catheter repositioning function. All the predefined targets were reached under fluoroscopy visualization, and procedural times were measured during catheter navigation and repositioning. The use of the TS slightly reduced the time necessary for catheter navigation compared with the conventional manual procedure (13.0 +/- 5.6 vs 16.1 +/- 6.4 seconds, p < 0.001) and significantly decreased the time for a precise catheter repositioning (9.2 +/- 2.5 vs 17.8 +/- 7.1 sec, p < 0.001). The TS proved to be a promising tool for remote navigation of standard EP catheters reducing the time necessary for catheter repositioning.