A robotic and contact-free bone cutting laser system has been awarded the CE mark.

The patented CARLO system developed by the Swiss MedTech start-up AOT is designed to cut bones precisely with a specialised laser.

The laser beam vaporizes the water inside the bone substrate within milliseconds so the bone will be removed precisely in layers, leaving no residue, as deep as desired or until it is severed. The laser head mounted on a tactile robotic arm is controlled by a navigation system.

Every movement of the patient or change of the operation set-up leads to immediate termination and the laser head refocuses itself automatically until the correct position is reached again.

Cyrill Bätscher, CEO of AOT, said: “The CE certification after years of intensive development is an important milestone.

“We have demonstrated the enormous potential of contact-free, robot-assisted surgery based on our laser technology for cutting bones. We have thus come a huge step closer to our vision of elevating classic surgical tools to the next level with our latest technology for the benefit of patients.”

Dr. Erich Platzer, chairman of the board and business angel, added: “Our focus is now on medical indications with a larger number of cases, such as neuro and spine surgery.

“We also rely on the use of artificial intelligence to analyse tissue and identify tumorous tissue in real time to be able to remove it with our CARLO^.”

For CE certification, CARLO was used for the first time in a clinical study in the context of operations for jaw correction.

The University Hospital Basel, the Medical University of Vienna (AKH Wien) and the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf took part in the study.