Ronovo Surgical launches multi-center clinical trial – Carina™ flawless in initial gynecologic oncologic experience

Compared to traditional laparoscopic surgery, RAS offers unique advantages. In patients with the same type of cancer, patient-specific differences often increase the difficulty of minimally invasive surgery (MIS). Increasingly, utilization of a surgical robot has proven to be more beneficial for challenging laparoscopic procedures.

Unlike existing surgical robots on the market, Carina adopts a differentiated design that exemplifies modularity, configurability, and nimbleness, reducing the learning curve for surgeons and their teams while enabling broad application across surgical specialties. During the preclinical product development stage, Prof. Ji and her team communicated extensively with Ronovo's clinical and R&D teams, providing valuable insights for the design and development of Carina. They continuously optimized the operational experience and workflow of the system in gynecologic applications, laying the foundation for Carina to efficiently complete complex oncologic procedures.

In the first two days of the clinical trial, Carina demonstrated outstanding stability and reliability over the six complex oncologic procedures for endometrial cancer and cervical cancer.

Opening with a challenge, the first case was an obese cervical cancer patient who previously received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Not only did fat accumulation severely narrow the operational space for instruments, but local tissue had also become brittle after multiple rounds of chemotherapy, with evident inflammatory reactions as well as severe edema and adhesions.

During this case, Carina enabled clear visualization of soft tissue through a high-definition, three-dimensional surgical field. Effectively filtering out hand tremors, the system improved surgical precision while allowing the surgeon to fully leverage her MIS skillset to successfully complete this challenging procedure. The patient was discharged without complication five days after surgery.

Postoperatively, Prof. Ji commented, "these complex surgeries are the best indications for surgical robots." Difficult surgeries, such as those for malignant tumors, MIS for benign tumors in special locations, and surgeries on morbidly obese patients, are all very suitable for robotic surgery. The clear vision and precise maneuvering of Carina make difficult surgeries easy to perform.

Compared to the physical and mental challenges of traditional laparoscopic surgery, Carina-powered RAS allowed Prof. Ji to remain energized during long, intense surgeries while easily performing complex surgical maneuvers, such as dissection, cutting and tissue closure. Furthermore, she was able to use Carina to successfully remove lymph nodes adjacent to the abdominal aorta beyond the pelvic cavity, demonstrating the system's precision, flexibility and robustness in handling complex large-scale surgeries.

These preliminary positive results in gynecological surgeries helps to validate the broad usability of Carina in Ronovo’s multi-specialty, multi-center clinical trial, which also includes urological, colorectal and thoracic cohorts.

Ronovo’s rapid progression in the last 12 months has been the result of the company’s focus on clinical needs, commitment to medical-engineering collaboration, and adherence to organic innovation rather than imitation.

Contact
ZiHan Lin
VP of Business Development
zihan.lin@ronovosurgical.com