Taiyuan, China —— Professor Jian An and his team from Shanxi Cardiovascular Hospital completed a case of robot-assisted percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on 10 January, 2022 with R-ONE^® Vascular Interventional Robot (R-ONE^®) introduced by Cathbot (Shanghai) Robot Co., Ltd. (Shanghai Cathbot^®), a joint venture company established in China jointly by Shanghai MicroPort MedBot (Group) Co., Ltd. (MicroPort^® MedBot^®) and Robocath S.A.S of France. It is the first PCI performed with R-ONE^® in Shanxi Province, symbolizing a staged progress for confirmatory clinical trial projects of R-ONE^®.

Before PCI, Prof. An Jian and his team performed coronary angiography and found that the stenosis rate of the proximal segment of the first diagonal branch was 90%. Then Prof. An successfully accessed the target lesion through the target vessel by using R-ONE^® Vascular Interventional Robot to transport the guide wire and catheter during the PCI, and completed the pre-dilation, stent implantation and post-dilation. After PCI, the stent adheres properly, the blood restores to smooth flow, and the lumen recovers well.

In a PCI, the doctor needs to perform high-precision operations in complex anatomies, which is extremely prone to vascular wall damage and even vascular dissection. Compared with traditional manual interventional therapy, R-ONE^® enables the guidewire to be always fixed during the intervention which improve the efficiency of catheter delivering and positioning,.. With the submillimeter-level advance accuracy, R-ONE^® helps the doctors to accurately position and deliver devices, improve the quality  of treatment and potentially reduce the risk of postoperative complications. In addition, the doctor may sit behind the radioprotection screen during the PCI, thus drastically reducing radiation exposure for the physician.

Professor Jian An commented that: "The first robot-assisted PCI completed in Shanxi Province is another milestone in cardiovascular field. It is an honor for me to participate in the confirmatory clinical trial with R-ONE^®. The standardized operation procedure and clear operation method of the robot reduce the learning curve. It can assist the operators to accurately place the stent, reduce the postoperative complications effectively and improve the postoperative effect. The doctor may sit behind the radioprotection screen during the PCI, which greatly minimize the radiation damage. It is expected that the experience of more vascular interventional doctors may be accumulated in the future on R-ONE® as to iterate it faster and benefit more patients and doctors."

Dr. Philippe Bencteux, chairman and founder of Robocath, said: " We are delighted with the success of these first robotic PCI at Shanxi Cardiovascular Hospital and we would like to thank Prof. Jian An and his team for their enthusiasm and commitment. These procedures are in line with our development strategy, and we are very proud to achieve this important strategic step and to see our first robot used in this key market. "

Dr. He Chao, president of MicroPort^® MedBot^®, said: "The first case of confirmatory clinical trial completed with R-ONE^® in Shanxi Province marked another milestone of the Pan-vascular business for MicroPort^® MedBot^®. It will further speed up the commercialization process of R-ONE^®. In the future, Cathbot will combine its advantages of Shanghai MicroPort Medical (Group) Co., Ltd. in the market of implantable consumables with the continuous improvement of total solutions for intelligent Pan-vascular intervention, focus on all indications in cardiovascular, neurological, peripheral and other pan-vascular fields, use 5G and AI technologies and integrate vascular structure imaging technology, hemodynamic monitoring technology, etc., to realize the total solutions for unmanned interventional operating room."