S. Duke Herrell

Surgery for prostate cancer—the most prevalent cancer in men—soon could no longer require cutting through healthy tissue and nerves. Surgeons instead may work with minuscule robots developed at the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering. Read More

Vanderbilt collaborators focused on minimally invasive prostate surgery are developing an endoscopic robotic system with two-handed dexterity at a much smaller scale than existing options. A key part of the design – telescoping, curved, concentric tubes – received U.S. patent protection in March 2019, the same month the principal investigators secured a $2.1 million R01... Read More

Removing part of a kidney with minimally invasive robotic surgery rather than an entire kidney when operating for smaller tumors is often best for patients from a recovery and health standpoint, but many surgeons hesitate to do so because of the complexity of the robotic partial nephrectomy procedure. Read More

VIDEO» A Vanderbilt research team has successfully created a mechanical wrist less than 1/16th of an inch thick -- small enough to use in needlescopic surgery, the smallest form of minimally invasive surgery. Read More

A team of engineers and doctors have developed a new wireless capsule that can give surgeons back their sense of touch when performing minimally invasive surgery. Read More

A Vanderbilt football player had never been this sick, strong stomach cramps, extreme pain in his midsection.  It threatened his college football career and could even threaten his life.  But a special micro surgery procedure, pioneered at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, got him back quickly on the football field.  Barb… Read More

An interdisciplinary collaboration of engineers and doctors at Vanderbilt and Columbia Universities has designed a robotic microsurgery system specifically designed to treat bladder cancer, the sixth most common form of cancer in the U.S. and the most expensive to treat. Read More