Millimeter-Scale Intravascular Surgical Robot VesselBot Completes First Human Trial: Autonomously Clears Plaque Inside Coronary Arteries

Millimeter-Scale Intravascular Surgical Robot VesselBot Completes First Human Trial

On September 13, 2030, Seoul Asan Medical Center in South Korea announced the successful completion of the world's first human trial using the VesselBot intravascular surgical robot to clear coronary artery plaque. VesselBot measures just 0.8 millimeters in diameter and 3 millimeters in length, and can autonomously identify and clear atherosclerotic plaque after being delivered into coronary arteries via catheter.

VesselBot was jointly developed by the Micro-Nano Robotics Laboratory at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Seoul Asan Medical Center. The robot's front end is equipped with a micro-ultrasound probe for imaging, its side features a micro-grinding head for clearing calcified plaque, and its rear has a micro-propeller for propulsion.

KAIST Professor Hongsoo Choi said that traditional cardiac stent surgery (PCI) uses balloon dilation and stent implantation to open narrowed blood vessels, but has limited effectiveness against severely calcified lesions. VesselBot can directly "grind away" calcified plaque and restore the vessel's original lumen diameter.

In the first human trial, VesselBot successfully cleared approximately 12 millimeters of calcified plaque from the mid-segment of the patient's left anterior descending artery. The procedure took approximately 45 minutes, and the patient was discharged 24 hours after surgery.

VesselBot is still in early clinical trial stages. Seoul Asan Medical Center plans to complete 30 trial cases by 2031. If results remain positive, regulatory approval is expected by 2033.