Multi-target Planar Needle Steering with a Bio-inspired Needle Design

摘要

Percutaneous intervention is common practice in many diagnostic and therapeutic surgical procedures. Needle steering research aims to extend these by enabling therapies that are not possible with a straight rigid needle. Being able to address multiple targets in one insertion is an example of such a therapy, which would result in reduced overall trauma to the patient and surgery time. However, needle steering remains challenging, as soft tissue is highly compliant and deformable, and thus difficult to interact with. In this work, we develop a new biologically inspired needle design (4 mm outside diameter) and show its capabilities in multiple moving target scenarios. In vitro results in gelatin demonstrate accurate 2D tracking of two virtual targets over 3 target movement rates.