# [China's Voice] Preclinical Animal Study: Domestic Neurointerventional Robotic System PANVIS STAR® Completes Validation of Five Major Neurointerventional Procedures

- Link: https://www.thailand-business-news.com/pr-news/chinas-voice-preclinical-animal-study-domestic-neurointerventional-robotic-system-panvis-star-completes-validation-of-five-major-neurointerventional-procedures
- Published: 2026-10-22T13:11:00+07:00
- Author: PR Newswire

SHANGHAI, Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Neurointerventional robots have long remained
at the stage of "only being able to assist with angiography." Through close medical-
engineering collaboration with Professor Jianmin Liu’s team at Shanghai Changhai
Hospital, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Biomedical Robot Co., Ltd. independently
developed a new-generation vascular interventional surgical robot technology and
product platform, PANVIS STAR®, for neurointerventional diagnostic and therapeutic
procedures, and conducted preclinical animal studies across various neurointerventional
indications.To our knowledge, this system is the first to achieve simultaneous coaxial
control of three catheters and one guidewire, and is capable of operating rapid-
exchange devices (balloons and balloon-expandable stents). In a porcine model, full-
process validation was completed for five major categories of procedures: cerebral
angiography and establishment of therapeutic access, aneurysm coil embolization,
flow diverter (FD) deployment, vertebral artery stenting, and carotid artery stenting.
All procedures were successful, with no device-related complications or vascular
injury. The entire process, from guidewire and catheter superselective navigation
to implant deployment, was performed by the robot, while manual operations were 
limited to catheter sheath insertion, device exchange, and loading in a radiation-
free environment. The study was published in the _Journal of Robotic Surgery_.

**01 | Background: The Leap from "Angiography-Capable" to "Treatment-Capable"**

Robotic assistance has entered routine endovascular practice, but its clinical role
has largely remained at the level of diagnostic angiography. Extending robotic assistance
to therapeutic neurointervention is considerably more demanding: a single procedure
may require the coordinated manipulation of a guiding catheter, an intermediate 
catheter, a microcatheter and a microguidewire, together with rapid-exchange devices
such as balloons and stents, delivered over a working length that extends from the
femoral or radial access site to the intracranial target. Covering this entire chain
of devices with one platform, rather than assisting only selected steps, is therefore
the central requirement for a treatment-capable robotic system, and it defines three
engineering priorities: compatibility with standard neurointerventional devices,
unrestricted delivery travel, and precise coordination of several devices simultaneously.

**02 | Mechanical Innovation of PANVIS STAR^(®): Master-slave collaboration, multi-
device manipulation**

PANVIS STAR® features a master-slave collaborative architecture. The master control
console can be deployed outside the interventional suite, allowing the operator 
to work free of radiation exposure. The bedside execution unit adapts to the interventional
environment, supports multi-dimensional adjustment, and accommodates both radial
and femoral access.

The system supports multi-device collaborative operation, combining coaxial and 
rapid-exchange techniques to meet the device-coordination requirements of complex
interventional procedures. Precise linear delivery and rotation control enable stable
and accurate manipulation of guidewires and catheters, supporting submillimeter-
level precision during superselective navigation and device deployment.

For sterile protection, a disposable sterile barrier and a rapid-turnover design
isolate the robot body from the surgical field, balancing safety, turnover efficiency
and clinical usability.

The master controller adopts the "Catheter On Finger" (PANVIS COF®) design. Its 
control levers are arranged horizontally, reproducing the spatial layout of guidewires
and catheters on the procedure table, so that the mapping between the operator’s
hand and the device is one-to-one and consistent with established manual habits 
and muscle memory. Multiple delivery modes are provided, enabling forward and backward
motion, rotation, and combined movements such as simultaneous advancement and rotation.

  |

** Action**

  |

**Manual Procedure**

  |

**PANVIS STAR® control**

  |  
 |

Device advancement

  |

Operator pushes forward with the left hand

  |

Push the control lever horizontally to the left

  |  
 |

Device retraction

  |

Operator pulls backward with the right hand

  |

Pull the control lever horizontally to the right

  |  
 |

Device rotation

  |

Twist the device longitudinally

  |

Rotate the control lever longitudinally

  |

**03 | Establishment of Animal Models**

The work has been reported in accordance with the ARRIVE guidelines (Animals in 
Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments), and all animal procedures were approved
by the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee. The team created lateral wall aneurysms
on the common carotid arteries of 3 anesthetized surviving pigs by end-to-side anastomosis
using an autologous venous pouch (bilateral aneurysms in 2 animals). A total of 
five surgically created aneurysms were allocated to coiling alone (n = 2), FD implantation(
n = 2), and coiling + FD (n = 1). In addition, one right vertebral artery (V1 segment)
and one right common carotid artery were utilized for vertebral artery balloon-expandable
stent angioplasty and CAS, respectively. Since the objective was to validate technical
feasibility rather than to simulate pathological stenosis, no artificial stenosis
models were created.

Success was defined as completion of the planned procedure without device malfunction
and without vascular damage, with vascular damage assessed by comparison of pre-
and postprocedural angiography.

**04 | Results: All Procedures Successful, With All Fluoroscopic Steps Completed
by the Robot**

In the porcine model, all planned procedures were performed successfully, with no
relevant technical complications or vascular damage. The mean procedural time of
each procedure was as follows:

  |

**Procedure**

  |

**Core steps completed by the robot**

  |

**Steps still performed manually**

  |

**Mean procedural time**

  |  
 |

Diagnostic cerebral angiography

  |

Navigation of the 5F catheter and 0.035-inch guidewire from the femoral sheath to the target vessel, completing bilateral carotid and vertebral angiography

  |

Insertion of the arterial sheath

  |

26 min

  |  
 |

Navigation of the guiding catheter

  |

Placement of the 8F guiding catheter with the assistance of a 125 cm MPA catheter and a 0.035-inch guidewire, enabling synchronized coaxial control of the two catheters

  |

—

  |

6 min

  |  
 |

Aneurysm coiling

  |

Superselective navigation of the microcatheter into the aneurysm sac withmicroguidewire assistance, withdrawal of the microguidewire, and delivery and deployment of coils (3 coils) through the microcatheter

  |

Loading of the coils into the microcatheter through the protective sheath

  |

24 min

  |  
 |

FD deployment

  |

Navigation of the microcatheter to the parent artery and complete deployment of the FD, including slow microcatheter retraction and fine-tuning of the delivery wire tension

  |

Loading of the FD into the microcatheter through the protective sheath

  |

16 min

  |  
 |

Vertebral artery (VA) stenting

  |

Navigation of the balloon-expandable stent to the vertebral artery, with the robot maintaining distal wire stabilization during balloon inflation, deflation and retrieval

  |

Loading of the stent and microguidewire into the Y valve; balloon inflation

  |

13 min

  |  
 |

Carotid artery stenting (CAS)

  |

Delivery and retrieval of the cerebral protection device (Spider FX), navigation of the balloon and stent, and deployment of the self-expanding stent

  |

Loading of devices into the Y valve; balloon inflation

  |

43 min

  |

Notably, all manual steps were limited to device exchange and loading in a radiation-
free environment; from catheter navigation to device deployment, nearly all steps
were performed robotically, and robotic assistance did not increase the complexity
of the procedure.

[⌊The practical application scenario, cerebral angiography and navigation of the
guiding catheter. (A) The slave manipulator on the DSA table for navigation of the
guiding catheter. (B) The physician’s intraoperative manipulation scenario. (C) 
The 5F angiographic catheter was inserted into the VA for angiography. (D) Navigation
of the 8F guiding catheter with the assistance of an MPA catheter and a guidewire.⌉⌊
The practical application scenario, cerebral angiography and navigation of the guiding
catheter. (A) The slave manipulator on the DSA table for navigation of the guiding
catheter. (B) The physician’s intraoperative manipulation scenario. (C) The 5F angiographic
catheter was inserted into the VA for angiography. (D) Navigation of the 8F guiding
catheter with the assistance of an MPA catheter and a guidewire.⌉[
The practical
application scenario, cerebral angiography and navigation of the guiding catheter.(
A) The slave manipulator on the DSA table for navigation of the guiding catheter.(
B) The physician’s intraoperative manipulation scenario. (C) The 5F angiographic
catheter was inserted into the VA for angiography. (D) Navigation of the 8F guiding
catheter with the assistance of an MPA catheter and a guidewire.

**05 | Discussion: Device Delivery Performance and Multi-Device Collaborative Operation**

PANVIS STAR® addresses the above bottlenecks through four breakthrough designs: 
a task-oriented modular four-drive unit, a travel-unlimited linear delivery mechanism,
a high-precision rotation mechanism, and a COF master control system. COF replaces
the previously counterintuitive vertical-axis joystick paradigm with a horizontal-
axis joystick, achieving 1:1 motion mapping between manual manipulation and robotic
control: device advancement corresponds to "left-hand push forward / joystick push
up / control lever horizontal left shift," retraction corresponds to "right-hand
pull back / joystick pull down / control lever horizontal right shift," and rotation
corresponds to "vertical twisting / horizontal joystick ring rotation / control 
lever vertical rotation." Operators no longer need to perform mental remapping of
directions and can focus their attention on the surgical strategy itself.

**To our knowledge, PANVIS STAR® is the first robotic platform capable of simultaneous
coaxial control of three catheters and one guidewire, coupled with rapid-exchange
functionality. It is fully compatible with all kinds of standard neurointerventional
devices (various catheters, microcatheters, balloons, stents, etc.), providing the
mechanical basis for multi-device collaborative procedures.**

**06 | Limitations and Future Directions**

 ◦ This study is a pilot experiment performed in only 3 porcine models, without 
   a manual control group, and the sample size is limited;
 ◦ Larger-scale trials with clinical and follow-up endpoints are still needed for
   validation.
 ◦ The capability for simultaneous multi-device management opens up robotic applications
   for emergency scenarios such as mechanical thrombectomy in acute ischemic stroke
   and emergency embolization for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage; the team has
   completed a validation study of long-distance remote robot-assisted emergency
   surgery.

**07 | Conclusion**

This preclinical pilot study demonstrates that the PANVIS STAR® multi-device robotic
system is technically feasible for cerebral angiography, guiding catheter navigation,
aneurysm embolization, flow diverter (FD) deployment, vertebral artery stenting 
and CAS, without increasing procedural complexity. As a small-sample preclinical
study, larger-scale clinical studies with a manual control group are still needed
to further validate its efficacy and safety; the system’s multi-device collaborative
capability also provides a technical foundation for scenarios such as remote emergency
thrombectomy and embolization of ruptured aneurysms.

**Original Article Information**

Zhang Y, Ma H, Li J, et al. Feasibility of a novel multi-device robotic system for
multiple neurointerventional procedures: pre-clinical validation in porcine models.
J Robotic Surg. 2026;20:863. doi:10.1007/s11701-026-03736-4

Co-first authors: Yongxin Zhang, Hongyu Ma and Jiayan Li; Corresponding authors:
Jianmin Liu, Shuxiang Guo and Pengfei Yang.

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (
Grant No. 82401536).

**Contact:**

abrobo
[marketing@abrobo.com](https://www.thailand-business-news.com/pr-news/marketing@abrobo.com)
+860755-82772975

---

  |  This article was produced by Cision PR Newswire, our trusted news partner. The views expressed and the content presented here are solely those of the author and may not fully reflect the opinions of Thailand Business News. |

---

 
**Read the original article :** [[China's Voice] Preclinical Animal Study: Domestic Neurointerventional Robotic System PANVIS STAR® Completes Validation of Five Major Neurointerventional Procedures ](http://www.prnasia.com/story/archive/5076364_AE76364_0?rand=184833)
