ROBOTIC SURGICAL SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC CREATION OF ABLATION LESIONS

摘要

A system (10) for ablating tissue includes an ablation catheter (12) for insertion into the body of a patient and a robotic controller (24) for moving the catheter (12) within the body. The robotic controller (24) advances the catheter (12) until the catheter (12) contacts the tissue surface (82), maintains contact between the catheter (12) and the tissue surface (82), and moves the catheter (12) along a predetermined path (200) to create a substantially continuous lesion of ablated tissue. A display device (156) may be used to present a graphical representation of an area of tissue to be ablated. A user interface (166) permits selection of a plurality of treatment points (202) on the graphical representation. The interface (166) is preferably coupled to the controller (24) and catheter (12) such that the controller (24) may cause the catheter (12) to automatically ablate tissue.