两大巨头联手下场，手术机器人迎来新爆点
The field of surgical robots has welcomed another heavyweight player!
Recently, two major medical device giants, Siemens Healthineers and Stryker, announced that they will jointly develop a neurovascular interventional surgical robot capable of performing comprehensive elective and emergency neurovascular interventional procedures, including the treatment of strokes and aneurysms.
This neurovascular surgical robot integrates imaging capabilities, surgical consumables, and the robot into an ecosystem, which can improve surgical precision and shorten treatment time. The duration of neurovascular interventional surgery is an important factor determining the postoperative benefits for patients. Take acute ischemic stroke, a common ischemic cerebrovascular disease, for example. Patients need to receive effective treatment within a short period; otherwise, they may die due to the rapid progression of the disease. The neurovascular robot is expected to improve patients' prognosis by shortening the surgical time and ensure postoperative benefits for patients.
This cooperation includes development in multiple aspects, such as the design of the robotic system, the integration of equipment and implantable consumables, robotic navigation imaging, and optimization of the surgical process.
In 2023, Siemens Healthineers stopped the application of its vascular interventional surgical robot in the cardiac field, which once cast a shadow over this area. Now, Siemens Healthineers is teaming up with another giant and doubling down on this field, demonstrating its optimism about this area and injecting more vitality into the vascular interventional surgical robot market.
01
Giants Join Hands to Address the Shortage of Consumable Matching
As a type of vascular interventional surgical robot, the core value of the neurointerventional surgical robot is to reduce the radiation exposure of doctors during surgery and improve surgical precision. Surgical robots are mainly used in vascular interventional (including cardiac, neuro, and peripheral interventions) surgeries to advance and navigate catheters, construct 3D maps of patients' blood vessels based on pre - and intra - operative imaging data, and analyze the characteristics of blood vessel intersections, bends, elasticity, and plaques. Thus, they can track and locate surgical instruments during surgery and convert doctors' actions into instrument manipulations.
In terms of reducing radiation, conventional vascular interventional surgeries are usually performed manually under a large amount of X - ray radiation. This radiation exposure has an adverse impact on human health, and with the accumulation of radiation damage from repeated surgeries, it may cause cancer. Moreover, using radiation protection devices is not a long - term solution to avoid such physical damage. With the help of vascular interventional surgical robots, doctors can sit behind a radiation - protected console to perform remote operations, effectively reducing their exposure time to radiation while performing precise surgical operations.
Schematic diagram of the R - ONE vascular interventional surgical robot
The first - generation vascular interventional surgical robots are usually indicated for cardiovascular and neurointerventional procedures but cannot perform the full - process PCI surgery. They cover few surgical procedures, lack force feedback, and their compatibility with consumables needs to be improved. The alliance between Siemens Healthineers and Stryker is expected to launch a new generation of products.
Among the two giants joining hands this time, Siemens Healthineers is a global leader in medical imaging and provides indispensable imaging navigation support in neurointerventional surgeries.
Siemens Healthineers once failed in the field of vascular interventional surgical robots. In 2019, Siemens Healthineers acquired the vascular interventional surgical robot company Corindus Vascular Robotics for $1.1 billion and obtained the CorPath® GRX (Tuling) vascular interventional surgical robot. In 2023, Siemens Healthineers announced the cessation of its vascular interventional robot business in the field of cardiology and shifted its focus to robotic solutions for neurovascular interventions.
Stryker is a major medical device company in the fields of orthopedics, neurointervention, and endoscopy. Its neurointerventional products cover three major areas: hemorrhagic, access, and ischemic. In 2024, Stryker's medical device and neurointerventional business revenue reached $13.5 billion. Neurointerventional products include intracranial thrombectomy stents, intracranial thrombus aspiration catheters, coils, and flow - diverting stents. In the field of neurointervention, Stryker has a leading market share. For example, in the domestic market, the market share of Stryker's Synchro series of high - performance microguidewires exceeds 80%.
Siemens Healthineers' choice to partner with Stryker may be due to Stryker's comprehensive neurointerventional consumable solutions. Previously, Siemens' vascular interventional surgical robot stopped being used in the field of cardiology. Some industry insiders analyzed that there were two major shortcomings behind this, which led to the product's under - performance in commercialization and forced it to withdraw. The two shortcomings are: 1. It cannot assist in the full - process PCI surgery; 2. It has strict requirements for consumables and cannot be compatible with all consumables. In the field of neurointervention, Siemens Healthineers is expected to make up for the shortage of consumable matching through cooperation with Stryker.
The two companies also stated in the cooperation news that in the early stage of their cooperation, they will focus on jointly developing an integrated ecosystem and cooperate with leading doctors to verify its clinical value. The collaborative optimization of consumables and systems between the two companies is expected to improve the performance of surgical robots and bring a new generation of neurointerventional surgical robot products.
02
Selecting the Neurointerventional Track
In addition, the cooperation between Siemens Healthineers and Stryker in developing neurointerventional surgical robots can also help them better understand clinical pain points.
The neurointerventional track selected by the two giants has a rigid demand with high growth rates. In China, cerebrovascular diseases have become the main diseases endangering the health and lives of the middle - aged and elderly, ranking high in terms of mortality and disability rates. The annual number of neurointerventional surgeries in China exceeds 400,000. According to IQVIA data, in H1 2025, the domestic neurointerventional market maintained a year - on - year growth of 10%.
In vascular interventional surgical robots, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular indications each have their own challenges. An industry insider said: "In cardiovascular interventional surgeries, the heart is beating, which means that imaging cannot provide the most accurate reference. During the surgery, doctors need to make decisions based on their experience. Cerebrovascular interventional surgeries are relatively static, but the cerebrovascular system has a high degree of tortuosity, even in three - dimensional space. In addition, the secondary and tertiary blood vessels in the brain are getting thinner and more fragile, which also brings operational challenges. For different surgical procedures, vascular interventional surgical robots need to have the ability to handle the challenges of different procedures."
The alliance between Siemens Healthineers and an experienced player in the neurointerventional field is expected to develop a neurointerventional surgical robot that better meets clinical needs, based on Stryker's understanding of clinical pain points and diverse product portfolio, as well as Siemens Healthineers' accumulation in imaging and engineering technologies.
03
Commercialization Is Still in the Early Stage
From a global competitive perspective, there are multiple vascular interventional surgical robots approved for marketing worldwide. For example, Robocath's R - One has obtained CE and NMPA certifications; Johnson & Johnson's Sensei X2 and Stereotaxis's Genesis RMN have obtained FDA approvals; and Siemens' CorPath GRX (Tuling) has obtained CE, FDA, and NMPA certifications. Most companies' products are indicated for both cardiovascular and neurointerventional procedures.
Domestic vascular interventional surgical robots are on par with international R & D. There are also multiple domestic products approved. These include the PANVIS - A™ cerebrovascular interventional surgical assistance operating system by Aibohechuang; the VAS HERO neurovascular interventional robot by Wansi Medical; and the ETcath® interventional surgical robot by Weimai Medical.
Domestic enterprises are at the forefront of exploring vascular interventional surgical robots, and domestic vascular interventional surgical robots generally have force - feedback technology. Domestic enterprises are also exploring remote surgeries. In October 2024, Aibohechuang successfully completed the world's first live - streamed animal experiment of remote cerebrovascular interventional therapeutic surgeries (aneurysm embolization and basilar artery stent implantation). It is reported that some domestic enterprises are researching AI - operated vascular interventional robots and have made progress.
In terms of commercialization, the commercialization of vascular interventional surgical robots is still in the early stage. Among global commercialization efforts, Siemens Healthineers' CorPath GRX has a relatively leading performance. Since acquiring the CorPath GRX technology, Siemens Healthineers has not released the latest specific global installation numbers of CorPath® GRX. Previously disclosed data showed that as of 2019, the global installation volume was 53 units. Overall, the global vascular interventional surgical robot field is still in a critical stage of validating technological maturity and transforming clinical value. Global enterprises generally increase recognition through multi - center, large - sample clinical studies to break through the clinical trust barrier in the commercialization process.
Domestic vascular interventional surgical robots have also achieved a breakthrough in commercialization! In 2024, MicroPort's R - ONE vascular interventional robot won bids from five top public hospitals in Shanghai, including Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, and achieved the first two commercial installations in the Chinese market. MicroPort's ability to rapidly promote the commercialization of vascular interventional surgical robots mainly benefits from the high - level synergy with the cardiovascular business of the MicroPort Medical Group. This proves that the ability to achieve high - level synergy with the consumable business is one of the keys to the commercialization of vascular interventional surgical robots.
From a technological perspective, vascular interventional surgical robots are entering an "innovation - active period", and both domestic and foreign enterprises are accelerating product iterations. From a cost perspective, after the development boom of humanoid robots, the supply chain cost of surgical robots has also decreased. In the future, the emergence of vascular interventional robots will help the popularization of interventional surgical technologies, reduce the learning curve for doctors, and make interventional surgeries more accessible.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Arterial Network" (ID: vcbeat), author: Yang Xue, published by 36Kr with permission.