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Data and code from: A minimally-invasive robotic spinal surgical system for anterior lumbar nerve decompression

Zhao, Qingxiang1; Li, Kang1; Wang, Xiandi1; Zhong, Xin1; Zhu, Runfeng1; Zhou, Peizhi1; Lin, Baitao1; Li, Tao1; Sui, Shiyuan1; Zhou, Haonan1; Cheng, Yuxi1; Zheng, Hao2; Chu, Henry K.2; Zeng, Jiancheng1; Pu, Dan1

Published May 12, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.08kprr5gm

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May 12, 2026 version files 85.75 KB

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Abstract

Patients with lumbar degenerative disease, which is caused by nerves in spinal canal being compressed by pathological tissues, should have a surgery, i.e. lumbar nerve decompression in spine surgery, to relieve the pain. While the anterior decompression approach, which has been widely used, exhibits notable advantages such as reduced bleeding and shorter postoperative hospitalization stay as compared with the posterior decompression approach, patients could still suffer from incomplete decompression due to various shortcomings of the instruments, including limited or occluded view on the posterior area of the spine. In particular, these instruments are straight and rigid with no dexterity at the distal, posing challenges in excising the degenerative tissues. In this work, we propose the first robotic surgical system for lumbar nerve decompression. This study offers a new specialized robotic system to perform surgeries in narrow, confined and tortuous anatomies.