Organ curvature sensing using pneumatically attachable flexible rails in robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery

Abstract

In robotic-assisted partial nephrectomy, surgeons remove a part of a kidney often due to the presence of a mass. A drop-in ultrasound probe paired to a surgical robot is deployed to execute multiple swipes over the kidney surface to localise the mass and define the margins of resection. This sub-task is challenging and must be performed by a highly-skilled surgeon. Automating this sub-task may reduce cognitive load for the surgeon and improve patient outcomes. The eventual goal of this work is to autonomously move the ultrasound probe on the surface of the kidney taking advantage of the use of the Pneumatically Attachable Flexible (PAF) rail system, a soft robotic device used for organ scanning and repositioning. First, we integrate a shape-sensing optical fibre into the PAF rail system to evaluate the curvature of target organs in robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery. Then, we investigate the impact of the PAF rail’s material stiffness on the curvature sensing accuracy, considering that soft targets are present in the surgical field. We found overall curvature sensing accuracy to be between 1.44% and 7.27% over the range of curvatures present in adult kidneys. Finally, we use shape sensing to plan the trajectory of the da Vinci surgical robot paired with a drop-in ultrasound probe and autonomously generate an Ultrasound scan of a kidney phantom.

Autonomous control of an ultrasound probe for intra-operative ultrasonography using vision-based shape sensing of pneumatically attachable flexible rails

“…The design of the PAF rail suction line used in this work is based on the optimisation study first presented in [ 8 , 27 ], and later iterations in [ 9 , 11 ]. In this version, we wanted to manufacture the rail in solid block colours such that the suction area and grasping fin are in one colour, and the rail is in another contrasting colour, as shown in Fig.…”

“…The design of the PAF rail suction line used in this work is based on the optimisation study first presented in [8,27], and later iterations in [9,11]. In this version, we wanted to the contour are detected.…”

“…Additionally, a fusion of FBG sensing with stereo vision has achieved precise shape sensing, even in cases of visual occlusion [28]. While FBG sensing has been successfully explored in the PAF rail [9], our application finds vision-based sensing more suitable due to its non-intrusive nature and the availability of stereo endoscopes in surgical settings.…”

“…We demonstrated how the PAF rail could acquire US images for 3D reconstruction in [ 10 ]. We also showed how shape and interaction information can be extracted by embedding a fibre-optic shape sensor into the body of the PAF rail in [ 9 – 11 ].…”

Imaging skins: stretchable and conformable on-organ beta particle detectors for radioguided surgery

“…Similarly, McDonald-Bowyer et al incorporated an FBGS to track the deformation of a pneumatically-actuated silicon retractor during robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery. Therefore providing means to correlate US images to the underlying organ morphology [79].…”