Italian robotic surgery company MMI has announced the CE marking and launch of what it’s calling the “world’s smallest wristed surgical instruments.”

MMI designed the Symani surgical system for open microsurgical procedures. The system combines the benefits of tremor reduction and motion scaling (7-20x) with the world’s smallest wristed instrumentation, offering seven degrees of freedom and dexterity beyond the reach of human hands, according to the company. The system’s NanoWrist instruments are designed to overcome the challenges of free-flap reconstructions, replantations, congenital malformations, peripheral nerve repairs and lymphatic surgery.

The first four robotic surgeries were successfully performed in Florence, Italy, including three complex, post-traumatic lower limb reconstructions as well as a post-oncological reconstruction of the pharynx, according to a news release.

“There is a clear demand for robotics in microsurgery as the limits of the human hand have already been reached,” said MMI CEO Giuseppe Maria Prisco in the statement. “We founded MMI to develop a robotic system designed for and with
microsurgeons that will improve outcomes and address unmet patient needs, particularly through supermicrosurgery techniques which are required for lymphatic and other extremely delicate procedures.”

“Microsurgery and supermicrosurgery — as a tool, technique and discipline — continue to evolve,” added Dr. L. Scott Levin, chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “The use of robotics holds great promise to advance the specialty of microsurgery and improve care for patients affected by trauma, cancer, congenital malformations and even chronic conditions such as lymphedema.”