Design and in vivo evaluation of a robotized needle insertion system for small animals

Respiratory motion tracking of the thoracoabdominal surface based on defect-aware point cloud registration

The performance of conventional lung puncture surgery is a complex undertaking due to the surgeon's reliance on visual assessment of respiratory conditions and the manual execution of the technique while the patient maintains breath-holding. However, the failure to correctly perform a puncture technique can lead to negative outcomes, such as the development of sores and pneumothorax. In this work, we proposed a novel approach for monitoring respiratory motion by utilizing defect-aware point cloud registration and descriptor computation. Through a thorough examination of the attributes of the inputs, we suggest the incorporation of a defect detection branch into the registration network. Additionally, we developed two modules with the aim of augmenting the quality of the extracted features. A coarse-to-fine respiratory phase recognition approach based on descriptor computation is devised for the respiratory motion tracking. The efficacy of the suggested registration method is demonstrated through experimental findings conducted on both publicly accessible datasets and thoracoabdominal point cloud datasets. We obtained state-of-the-art registration results on ModelNet40 datasets, with 1.584∘ on rotation mean absolute error and 0.016 mm on translation mean absolute error, respectively. The experimental findings conducted on a thoracoabdominal point cloud dataset indicate that our method exhibits efficacy and efficiency, achieving a frame matching rate of 2 frames per second and a phase recognition accuracy of 96.3%. This allows identifying matching frames from template point clouds that display different parts of a patient's thoracoabdominal surface while breathing regularly to distinguish breathing stages and track breathing.

Review of robotic systems for thoracoabdominal puncture interventional surgery

Cancer, with high morbidity and high mortality, is one of the major burdens threatening human health globally. Intervention procedures via percutaneous puncture have been widely used by physicians due to its minimally invasive surgical approach. However, traditional manual puncture intervention depends on personal experience and faces challenges in terms of precisely puncture, learning-curve, safety and efficacy. The development of puncture interventional surgery robotic (PISR) systems could alleviate the aforementioned problems to a certain extent. This paper attempts to review the current status and prospective of PISR systems for thoracic and abdominal application. In this review, the key technologies related to the robotics, including spatial registration, positioning navigation, puncture guidance feedback, respiratory motion compensation, and motion control, are discussed in detail.

Realization and Control of Robotic Injection Prototype With Instantaneous Remote Center of Motion Mechanism

OBJECTIVE

Although there have been studies conducted on the instantaneous remote center of motion (RCM) mechanism, the general closed-loop control method has not been studied. Thus, this article fills that gap and employs the advantages of this mechanism to develop a novel injection system.

METHODS

The injection prototype involves the instantaneous RCM mechanism, insertion unit and injection unit. The RCM system is investigated in the presence of time-varying axial stiffness of the screw drive and underactuated case. For safe interaction, compliance control is designed in the insertion system. The stability of all separate systems is investigated with the bounded parameter variation rate. The injection prototype and a robot end-effector were then combined to perform injection.

RESULTS

Our RCM prototype can achieve a large workspace, and its control effectiveness was verified by multiple frameworks and comparison with previous studies. Compliance-controlled insertion can achieve accurate depth regulation and zero-impedance control for manually operating the needle. With the help of three-dimensional reconstruction and hand/eye calibration, the manipulator can guide the injection prototype to a proper pose for injection of a face model.

CONCLUSION

The injection prototype was successfully designed. The effectiveness of the whole control system was verified by simulations and experiments. The particular robotic injection task can be performed by the prototype.

SIGNIFICANCE

This article provides alternative schemes for developing an instantaneous RCM system, screw drive-based surgical tool, and robotic insertion with small needles.

A multiple closed-loops robotic calibration for accurate surgical puncture

BACKGROUND

Robotic puncture system increasingly demands stringent standard in target location accuracy. The positional and orientational transformation relationships among all components of the system are supposed to be calibrated and identified preoperatively.

AIMS

The target location performance is directly determined by the calibration result. Therefore, a multiple closed-loops calibration approach is proposed to achieve high-level calibration accuracy in robotic puncture system. MATERIALS & METHODS: This method takes as input the three-dimensional position information of the retro-reflective markers mounted on the surgical tool, which is detected by the optical tracking system in real time during robotic movement. There is less complicated mathematical derivation and calculation in the presented algorithm by applying the closed-loop principle.

RESULTS

Experimental results validate that it can achieve accurate robotic target location with less input data and computation-cost, satisfying the clinical puncture requirements.

DISCUSSION

The spatial calibration between robotic arm and optical tracking system efficiently realised by the presented approach present an alternative which can be safely applied to the robotic puncture system for accurate insertion.

CONCLUSION

Overall, a multiple closed-loops calibration approach is proposed in this work, which may increase surgical efficiency.

A CT-guided robotic needle puncture method for lung tumours with respiratory motion

PURPOSE

Percutaneous interventions rely on needle puncture to deliver medical devices into lesions. For lung tumours, respiratory motion makes effective puncture procedures difficult to achieve. To address this issue, a needle puncture method considering respiration is proposed to improve the accuracy of lung puncture.

METHODS

The accuracy of puncture is ensured by visualization and needle guidance. Dynamic visualization of the respiratory motion is developed for needle path planning based on four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) images. The rendered image is synchronized with the actual breathing by using respiratory signals. A robotic needle insertion strategy for velocity adjustment based on these respiratory signals is designed to guide the needle towards the moving tumour.

RESULTS

The dynamic visualization was tested on multiple 4DCT datasets and achieved a frame rate of over 32 frames per second (FPS). A computer simulation was carried out to verify the feasibility of the needle insertion strategy. Needle puncture was performed on a phantom, and a mean accuracy of 1.34±0.18 mm was achieved.

CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, an efficient and robust method is proposed to improve the visualization and targeting of lung puncture, which reduces the impact of respiratory motion on the accuracy.

An algorithm for accurate needle orientation

For the early diagnosis and treatment, a needle insertion for biopsy and treatment is a common and important means. To solve the low accuracy and high probability of repeat surgery in traditional surgical procedures, a computer-assisted system is an effective solution. In such a system, how to acquire the accurate orientation of the surgical needle is one of the most important factors. This paper proposes a "Center Point Method" for needle axis extraction with high accuracy. The method makes full use of edge points from two sides of the needle in image and creates center points through which an accurate axis is extracted. Experiments show that the proposed method improves needle orientation accuracy by approximately 70% compared to related work in binocular stereovision system.

Design and development of a robotized system coupled to µCT imaging for intratumoral drug evaluation in a HCC mouse model

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancer related deaths worldwide. One of the main challenges in cancer treatment is drug delivery to target cancer cells specifically. Preclinical evaluation of intratumoral drugs in orthotopic liver cancer mouse models is difficult, as percutaneous injection hardly can be precisely performed manually. In the present study we have characterized a hepatoma model developing a single tumor nodule by implantation of Hep55.1C cells in the liver of syngeneic C57BL/6J mice. Tumor evolution was followed up by µCT imaging, and at the histological and molecular levels. This orthotopic, poorly differentiated mouse HCC model expressing fibrosis, inflammation and cancer markers was used to assess the efficacy of drugs. We took advantage of the high precision of a previously developed robotized system for automated, image-guided intratumoral needle insertion, to administer every week in the tumor of the Hep55.1C mouse model. A significant tumor growth inhibition was observed using our robotized system, whereas manual intraperitoneal administration had no effect, by comparison to untreated control mice.