1
|
Bloemberg J, Hoppener B, Coolen B, Sakes A, Breedveld P. Design and evaluation of a pneumatic actuation unit for a wasp-inspired self-propelled needle. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0306411. [PMID: 38954720 PMCID: PMC11218968 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2023] [Accepted: 06/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Transperineal laser ablation is a minimally invasive thermo-ablative treatment for prostate cancer that requires the insertion of a needle for accurate optical fiber positioning. Needle insertion in soft tissues may cause tissue motion and deformation, resulting in tissue damage and needle positioning errors. In this study, we present a wasp-inspired self-propelled needle that uses pneumatic actuation to move forward with zero external push force, thus avoiding large tissue motion and deformation. The needle consists of six parallel 0.25-mm diameter Nitinol rods driven by a pneumatic actuation system. The pneumatic actuation system consists of Magnetic Resonance (MR) safe 3D-printed parts and off-the-shelf plastic screws. A self-propelled motion is achieved by advancing the needle segments one by one, followed by retracting them simultaneously. The advancing needle segment has to overcome a cutting and friction force, while the stationary needle segments experience a friction force in the opposite direction. The needle self-propels through the tissue when the friction force of the five stationary needle segments overcomes the sum of the friction and cutting forces of the advancing needle segment. We evaluated the prototype's performance in 10-wt% gelatin phantoms and ex vivo porcine liver tissue inside a preclinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner in terms of the slip ratio of the needle with respect to the phantom or liver tissue. Our results demonstrated that the needle was able to self-propel through the phantom and liver tissue with slip ratios of 0.912-0.955 and 0.88, respectively. The prototype is a promising step toward the development of self-propelled needles for MRI-guided transperineal laser ablation as a method to treat prostate cancer.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jette Bloemberg
- Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Bio-Inspired Technology (BITE) Group, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Bruce Hoppener
- Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Bio-Inspired Technology (BITE) Group, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Bram Coolen
- Department of Biomedical Engineering & Physics, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Aimée Sakes
- Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Bio-Inspired Technology (BITE) Group, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Paul Breedveld
- Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Bio-Inspired Technology (BITE) Group, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Wang Y, Ye Z, Wen M, Liang H, Zhang X. TransVFS: A spatio-temporal local-global transformer for vision-based force sensing during ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy. Med Image Anal 2024; 94:103130. [PMID: 38437787 DOI: 10.1016/j.media.2024.103130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2023] [Revised: 02/16/2024] [Accepted: 02/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/06/2024]
Abstract
Robot-assisted prostate biopsy is a new technology to diagnose prostate cancer, but its safety is influenced by the inability of robots to sense the tool-tissue interaction force accurately during biopsy. Recently, vision based force sensing (VFS) provides a potential solution to this issue by utilizing image sequences to infer the interaction force. However, the existing mainstream VFS methods cannot realize the accurate force sensing due to the adoption of convolutional or recurrent neural network to learn deformation from the optical images and some of these methods are not efficient especially when the recurrent convolutional operations are involved. This paper has presented a Transformer based VFS (TransVFS) method by leveraging ultrasound volume sequences acquired during prostate biopsy. The TransVFS method uses a spatio-temporal local-global Transformer to capture the local image details and the global dependency simultaneously to learn prostate deformations for force estimation. Distinctively, our method explores both the spatial and temporal attention mechanisms for image feature learning, thereby addressing the influence of the low ultrasound image resolution and the unclear prostate boundary on the accurate force estimation. Meanwhile, the two efficient local-global attention modules are introduced to reduce 4D spatio-temporal computation burden by utilizing the factorized spatio-temporal processing strategy, thereby facilitating the fast force estimation. Experiments on prostate phantom and beagle dogs show that our method significantly outperforms existing VFS methods and other spatio-temporal Transformer models. The TransVFS method surpasses the most competitive compared method ResNet3dGRU by providing the mean absolute errors of force estimation, i.e., 70.4 ± 60.0 millinewton (mN) vs 123.7 ± 95.6 mN, on the transabdominal ultrasound dataset of dogs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yibo Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No 1037, Luyou Road, Wuhan, China
| | - Zhichao Ye
- Department of Urology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No 13, Hangkong Road, Wuhan, China
| | - Mingwei Wen
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No 1037, Luyou Road, Wuhan, China
| | - Huageng Liang
- Department of Urology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No 13, Hangkong Road, Wuhan, China
| | - Xuming Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No 1037, Luyou Road, Wuhan, China.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Patel K, Hutapea P. Study of Tissue Damage Induced by Insertion of Composite-Coated Needle. Med Eng Phys 2024; 123:104094. [PMID: 38365334 DOI: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2023.104094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2023] [Revised: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
Medical interventions have significantly progressed in developing minimally invasive techniques like percutaneous procedures. These procedures include biopsy and internal radiation therapy, where a needle or needle-like medical device is inserted through the skin to access a target inside the body. Ensuring accurate needle insertion and minimizing tissue-damage or cracks are critical in these procedures. This research aims to examine the coated needle effect on the force required to insert the needle (i.e., insertion force) and on tissue-damage during needle insertion into the bovine kidney. Reducing the needle insertion force, which is influenced by needle surface friction, generally results in a reduction in tissue-damage. Surgical needles were coated with a composite material, combining Polytetrafluoroethylene, Polydopamine, and Activated Carbon. Force measurement during needle insertion and a histological study to determine tissue-damage were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the coating. The insertion force was reduced by 49 % in the case of the coated needles. Furthermore, a histological analysis comparing tissue-damage resulting from coated and uncoated needles revealed an average 39 % reduction in tissue-damage with the use of coated needles. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of coated needles to enhance needle insertion and safety during percutaneous procedures.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kavi Patel
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, United States of America
| | - Parsaoran Hutapea
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, United States of America.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Acharya SR, Hutapea P. An experimental study on the mechanics and control of SMA-actuated bioinspired needle. BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS 2023; 18:066008. [PMID: 37726011 DOI: 10.1088/1748-3190/acfb65] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023]
Abstract
Active needles demonstrate improved accuracy and tip deflection compared to their passive needle counterparts, a crucial advantage in percutaneous procedures. However, the ability of these needles to effectively navigate through tissues is governed by needle-tissue interaction, which depends on the tip shape, the cannula surface geometry, and the needle insertion method. In this research, we evaluated the effect of cannula surface modifications and the application of a vibrational insertion technique on the performance of shape memory alloy (SMA)-actuated active needles. These features were inspired by the mosquito proboscis' unique design and skin-piercing technique that decreased the needle tissue interaction force, thus enhancing tip deflection and steering accuracy. The bioinspired features, i.e., mosquito-inspired cannula design and vibrational insertion method, in an active needle reduced the insertion force by 26.24% and increased the tip deflection by 37.11% in prostate-mimicking gel. In addition, trajectory tracking error was reduced by 48%, and control effort was reduced by 23.25%, pointing towards improved needle placement accuracy. The research highlights the promising potential of bioinspired SMA-actuated active needles. Better tracking control and increased tip deflection are anticipated, potentially leading to improved patient outcomes and minimized risk of complications during percutaneous procedures.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sharad Raj Acharya
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| | - Parsaoran Hutapea
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Patel K, Hutapea P. Experimental and analytical study on insertion force of composite-coated needle in soft tissue material. Proc Inst Mech Eng H 2023; 237:1061-1071. [PMID: 37574843 DOI: 10.1177/09544119231191910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/15/2023]
Abstract
Medical interventions require control over surgical needle insertion to minimize tissue damage and target inaccuracies during percutaneous procedures. The composite coating of the needle using Polydopamine (PDA), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), and Activated Carbon (C) has been used to reduce the damaging needle insertion force. This research aims to further understand the interfacial mechanics of coated needle insertion by studying the forces at the needle and tissue interface and developing an analytical insertion force model through a combined experimental and numerical method. The proposed analytical force model is divided into two components: (1) Friction force on the needle shaft, modeled using a modified Karnopp model that includes an elastic force component; (2) Cutting force on the needle tip, modeled using a constant cutting coefficient for a given tissue and insertion speed. In this work, the analytical model was established by incorporating experiments conducted at a reasonable 35 mm insertion depth in tissues. In a bovine kidney with a 35 mm insertion depth, the insertion force evaluated through experimentation and modeling differed by 6.5% for a bare needle and 17.1% for a coated needle. It is important to note that this difference in the analytical insertion force model is anticipated when dealing with real tissues with a highly complex structured tissue. Prediction of the insertion force could potentially be utilized in robotic needle systems for needle control to improve the success of percutaneous procedures.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kavi Patel
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Parsaoran Hutapea
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Fung-A-Jou Z, Bloemberg J, Breedveld P. Bioinspired medical needles: a review of the scientific literature. BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS 2023; 18:041002. [PMID: 37230084 DOI: 10.1088/1748-3190/acd905] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Needles are commonly used in medical procedures. However, current needle designs have some disadvantages. Therefore, a new generation of hypodermic needles and microneedle patches drawing inspiration from mechanisms found in nature (i.e. bioinspiration) is being developed. In this systematic review, 80 articles were retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed and classified based on the strategies for needle-tissue interaction and propulsion of the needle. The needle-tissue interaction was modified to reduce grip for smooth needle insertion or enlarge grip to resist needle retraction. The reduction of grip can be achieved passively through form modification and actively through translation and rotation of the needle. To enlarge grip, interlocking with the tissue, sucking the tissue, and adhering to the tissue were identified as strategies. Needle propelling was modified to ensure stable needle insertion, either through external (i.e. applied to the prepuncturing movement of the needle) or internal (i.e. applied to the postpuncturing movement of the needle) strategies. External strategies include free-hand and guided needle insertion, while friction manipulation of the tissue was found to be an internal strategy. Most needles appear to be using friction reduction strategies and are inserted using a free-hand technique. Furthermore, most needle designs were inspired by insects, specifically parasitoid wasps, honeybees, and mosquitoes. The presented overview and description of the different bioinspired interaction and propulsion strategies provide insight into the current state of bioinspired needles and offer opportunities for medical instrument designers to create a new generation of bioinspired needles.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zola Fung-A-Jou
- Bio-Inspired Technology (BITE) Group, Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Jette Bloemberg
- Bio-Inspired Technology (BITE) Group, Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Paul Breedveld
- Bio-Inspired Technology (BITE) Group, Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|