Surgical robots, as a combination of a number of modern high-tech means in one, are used in some clinical procedures of medical equipment, by the surgeon using the main console through remote control and manipulation of the end of the device connected to the robot arm to complete the surgery. Compared to traditional surgery, the surgical robot can provide surgeons with a high-definition three-dimensional view of the surgical field; it can operate with greater flexibility and precision than manual surgery; and it can reduce the risk of wound exposure and infection by minimising the trauma to the patient's wound surface.

Perlove Medical Orthopaedic Surgery Robot

How much does a surgical robot cost?

In the field of surgical robots, the US-based robot-assisted minimally invasive surgical technology company Intuitive Surgical is the undisputed king. Founded in 1995, Intuitive Surgical has focused solely on researching robotic surgical systems, winning numerous capital favours, and has been listed on NASDAQ since 2000, monopolising the global market for lumpectomy robots for nearly 20 years with its da Vinci surgical robot.

However, the da Vinci lumpectomy robot, for example, costs around RMB 20 million for a single surgical robot and, moreover, each device is only used a cumulative 730 times. This means a start-up cost of 30,000 RMB per surgery, as well as annual consumables and maintenance costs of up to a million. These high costs are ultimately borne by the consumer, which is undoubtedly a significant expense for the patient. If a domestic surgical robot can offer a more competitive price point with quality close to that of the da Vinci robot, it may be able to effectively penetrate a wide untapped gap in the domestic market.

Huge potential for the development of domestic surgical robots

In 2012, the State Council issued the "Biological Industry Development Plan", which mentions the development of a new generation of minimally invasive, non-invasive and general practice diagnostic equipment and testing equipment, surgical instruments and robots. The 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry, issued in 2022, promotes the application of artificial intelligence and other information technology in the field of medical devices.

In the first half of 2022, nine surgical robots were approved for marketing by the NMPA, a significant increase compared to the six approved in 2021. Of these, three were knee replacement surgical robots, two each were lumpectomy surgical robots and spine surgical robots, and one each was a hip replacement surgical robot and a neurosurgical robot.

And on 14 June 2022, the domestic orthopaedic surgical robots developed by Perlove Medical independently received marketing approval from the State Drug Administration (NMPA). The approval will further break the monopoly of imported products in the domestic orthopaedic robot market, promote the rapid development of China-made orthopaedic surgical robots, further achieve accurate medical treatment, and create conditions for surgical robot technology to sink into primary hospitals and benefit more patients.

With nearly 20 years of experience in medical imaging, Perlove Medical has deep technical and market experience. 2012, PerloveMedical's self-developed 3D C-arm was listed on the market, and in the same year, the orthopaedic surgery robot development project was launched. After 10 years of polishing, the whole process solution of "3D C-arm + orthopaedic surgery robot" was officially launched.

Three-dimensional C-arm + orthopaedic surgery robot

The 3D C-arm, which is developed and manufactured by Perlove Medical, automatically aligns and registers the orthopaedic surgery robot with the integrated adaptive alignment technology, which automatically establishes the three coordinate associations of the optical alignment device, the patient and the image. The alignment process requires no human intervention and accuracy is not affected by image quality.

At present, the domestic replacement of surgical robots will be a more feasible direction, and the research and development of surgical robots in various departments in China has entered a state of blossoming, with the industry developing more and more vigorously and surgical robots becoming more specialised. The number of domestic cavity and orthopaedic surgical robots approved for listing has increased rapidly, and the surgical robot market has huge potential