scholarly journals Robotic external ventricular drain placement for acute neurosurgical care in low-resource settings: feasibility considerations and a prototype design

2022 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. E14

OBJECTIVE Emergency neurosurgical care in lower-middle-income countries faces pronounced shortages in neurosurgical personnel and infrastructure. In instances of traumatic brain injury (TBI), hydrocephalus, and subarachnoid hemorrhage, the timely placement of external ventricular drains (EVDs) strongly dictates prognosis and can provide necessary stabilization before transfer to a higher-level center of care that has access to neurosurgery. Accordingly, the authors have developed an inexpensive and portable robotic navigation tool to allow surgeons who do not have explicit neurosurgical training to place EVDs. In this article, the authors aimed to highlight income disparities in neurosurgical care, evaluate access to CT imaging around the world, and introduce a novel, inexpensive robotic navigation tool for EVD placement. METHODS By combining the worldwide distribution of neurosurgeons, CT scanners, and gross domestic product with the incidence of TBI, meningitis, and hydrocephalus, the authors identified regions and countries where development of an inexpensive, passive robotic navigation system would be most beneficial and feasible. A prototype of the robotic navigation system was constructed using encoders, 3D-printed components, machined parts, and a printed circuit board. RESULTS Global analysis showed Montenegro, Antigua and Barbuda, and Seychelles to be primary candidates for implementation and feasibility testing of the novel robotic navigation system. To validate the feasibility of the system for further development, its performance was analyzed through an accuracy study resulting in accuracy and repeatability within 1.53 ± 2.50 mm (mean ± 2 × SD, 95% CI). CONCLUSIONS By considering regions of the world that have a shortage of neurosurgeons and a high incidence of EVD placement, the authors were able to provide an analysis of where to prioritize the development of a robotic navigation system. Subsequently, a proof-of-principle prototype has been provided, with sufficient accuracy to target the ventricles for EVD placement.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. U. Gamm ◽  
S. Sester ◽  
L. M. Reindl

Abstract. Wireless sensor nodes inside buildings are used to read out sensor data and to control actuators. The nodes need to operate for a long time with a single battery. Often the sensor data should be accessible via Internet from every point of the world. When using a standard Wi-Fi connection, the battery of the node would be depleted after a few hours due to idle currents in receive state. Using sensor nodes with included wake-up receivers can prolong the lifetime of the sensor network to several years. However, no gateway exists that can, on the one hand, connect itself to the Internet and on the other hand can send out the special coded wake-up signal needed by the wake-up receivers on the nodes. In this work we want to bridge this gap by introducing the SmartGate. It is a gateway that has two transceivers incorporated on a single printed circuit board (PCB). A Wi-Fi module connects itself to an existing Wi-Fi network and listens for incoming messages. A CC430 microcontroller analyzes the incoming Wi-Fi messages and builds up the corresponding wake-up signal with included 16-bit address coding. The wake-up signal is sent out using the integrated CC1101 transceiver core from Texas Instruments. A woken-up node will read out its sensor data and will transmit it back to the gateway, where it will be packed into a TCP/IP packet and sent back to the user. The use of the gateway allows the implementation of a wireless sensor network with wake-up receivers that can be accessed via Internet from every point of the world.


2012 ◽  
Vol 132 (6) ◽  
pp. 404-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenichi Nakayama ◽  
Kenichi Kagoshima ◽  
Shigeki Takeda

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Richard Schilling ◽  

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is linked to an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events. While rhythm control with antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) is a common strategy for managing patients with AF, catheter ablation may be a more efficacious and safer alternative to AADs for sinus rhythm control. Conventional catheter ablation has been associated with challenges during the arrhythmia mapping and ablation stages; however, the introduction of two remote catheter navigation systems (a robotic and a magnetic navigation system) may potentially overcome these challenges. Initial clinical experience with the robotic navigation system suggests that it offers similar procedural times, efficacy and safety to conventional manual ablation. Furthermore, it has been associated with reduced fluoroscopy exposure to the patient and the operator as well as a shorter fluoroscopy time compared with conventional catheter ablation. In the future, the remote navigation systems may become routinely used for complex catheter ablation procedures.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 737-741
Author(s):  
Alejandro Dueñas Jiménez ◽  
Francisco Jiménez Hernández

Because of the high volume of processing, transmission, and information storage, electronic systems presently requires faster clock speeds tosynchronizethe integrated circuits. Presently the “speeds” on the connections of a printed circuit board (PCB) are in the order of the GHz. At these frequencies the behavior of the interconnects are more like that of a transmission line, and hence distortion, delay, and phase shift- effects caused by phenomena like cross talk, ringing and over shot are present and may be undesirable for the performance of a circuit or system.Some of these phrases were extracted from the chapter eight of book “2-D Electromagnetic Simulation of Passive Microstrip Circuits” from the corresponding author of this paper.


Author(s):  
Lubica Miková

Urgency of the research. Mechatronics products become more sophisticated and complicated. Mechatronic engineers should be prepared for this complex design process. Practical experimental model helps improve educational process as preparing for practice. Target setting. Miniaturized model of the lift suitable for practical training on subjects focused to microcontrollers, sen-sors, actuators etc. Students have possibility to make practice on laboratory exercises, where they can verify theoretical knowledge obtained on lectures. The arrangement of the model has modular character, because of possibility to rearrange or adding of new function into model. The aim was to create minimized model of real lift with all functions and systems. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. Many universities are oriented only to finished robotic kits and do not support creativity of students. Open access and open structure model missing in this field. There is a need for fast prototyping model, which allows the creation of new design of product. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. The question of the design of printed circuit board are uninvestigated, because they need more time than allows normal exercises. The research objective. The main aim of educational process is to educate engineers with basic knowledge, skills and handicraft. Practical models help as support devices for fulfil of this aim. All mechatronic students can practice a training on these practical models. They become as more skilled and well-oriented engineers.. The statement of basic materials. Construction consist of upper and lower base plate connected with four pillars used as linear guide for moving of lift cage. Lower base plate includes base microcontrollers boards, resistor network, power transis-tor array board, power supply terminals, relay modules, PWM module and signals terminals. Upper base plate consist of DC motor with gearing and screw mechanism for moving the lift cage. Conclusions. The model enables supports the creativity of the students. The starting point of the using of the model can be without any wired connections. Students should connect every part and try functionality of every function. The students receive the defined several problems and they have to analyze it and make any proposal for solution of defined problems.


Author(s):  
Prabjit Singh ◽  
Ying Yu ◽  
Robert E. Davis

Abstract A land-grid array connector, electrically connecting an array of plated contact pads on a ceramic substrate chip carrier to plated contact pads on a printed circuit board (PCB), failed in a year after assembly due to time-delayed fracture of multiple C-shaped spring connectors. The land-grid-array connectors analyzed had arrays of connectors consisting of gold on nickel plated Be-Cu C-shaped springs in compression that made electrical connections between the pads on the ceramic substrates and the PCBs. Metallography, fractography and surface analyses revealed the root cause of the C-spring connector fracture to be plating solutions trapped in deep grain boundary grooves etched into the C-spring connectors during the pre-plating cleaning operation. The stress necessary for the stress corrosion cracking mechanism was provided by the C-spring connectors, in the land-grid array, being compressed between the ceramic substrate and the printed circuit board.


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