Sensitivity of Influential Factors on Needle Insertion Experiments:A Quantitative Analysis on Phantom Deformations and Needle Deflections

High repeatability of needle insertion experiments is essential to the needle-phantom interaction model validation.However,the influential factors governing the accuracy of the phantom and needle deformations have not been systematically studied.In this paper,the impact of influential factors,including phantom characteristic represented by the ratio of DMSO and thawing time(TT),needle properties represented by needle external diameter(NED)and operating factors such as needle insertion velocity(IV),insertion positions(IP)and repeated insertion times(RITs)are analyzed by orthogonal experiment design.The range calculation shows the most sensitive parameters to phantom deformations are RITs,IV and DMSO while the most sensitive parameters to needle deflection are DMSO,TT and NED.By variance analysis,the significant factors on maximum tissue deformation(MTD)are IV,followed by RITs,DMSO and IP.And NED and TT have nearly no significant impact on MTD.The significant sequence on maximum needle deflection(MND)is as follows:DMSO,TT and NED.Results show that,among all impacting factors,phantom deformation is susceptible to both material properties and operative factors while the needle deflection is more susceptible to material properties of the phantom,which can help researchers in related fields to conduct experiments in a more precise manner and better understand the needle-phantom interaction mechanism.

Fuzzy control method to minimize the needle deflection during needle insertion therapy

A fuzzy control algorithm is adopted to help the needle hit the target more accurately. The experimental setup for the needle insertion is built up to validate the algorithm. How the forces dur- ing the insertion make the needle deflect away from the planned path is given, and the normal meth- od correcting the deflection is obtained accordingly. Because the normal method cannot perform well for correction, a fuzzy controller is established. The input module, output module, fuzzification module, defuzzification module and inference engine for the controller are given respectively accord- ing to the fuzzy theory. Our experimental results show that the fuzzy controlling system presenting in the paper can better eliminate the deflection.

Needle Steering for Robot-Assisted Insertion into Soft Tissue:A Survey

Needle insertion is a common surgical procedure used in diagnosis and treatment.The needle steering technologies make continuous developments in theoretical and practical aspects along with the in-depth research on needle insertion.It is necessary to summarize and analyze the existing results to promote the future development of theories and applications of needle insertion.Thus,a survey of the state of the art of research is presented on algorithms of needle steering techniques,the surgical robots and devices.Based on the analysis of the needle insertion procedure,the concept of needle steering is defined as a kinematics problem,which is to place the needle at the target and avoid the obstacles.The needle steering techniques,including the artificial potential field method and the nonholonomic model,are introduced to control the needles for improving the accuracy.Based on the quasi-static thinking,the virtual spring model and the cantilever-beam model are developed to calculate the amount of needle deflection and generate the needle path.The phantoms instead of the real tissue are used to verify the models mentioned in most of the experimentations.For the desired needle trajectories,the image-guided robotic devices and some novel needles are presented to achieve the needle steering.Finally,the challenges are provided involving the controllability of the long flexible needle and the properties of soft tissue.The results and investigations can be used for further study on the precision and accuracy of needle insertion.