scholarly journals Tactile Sensing for Minimally Invasive Surgery: Conventional Methods and Potential Emerging Tactile Technologies

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wael Othman ◽  
Zhi-Han A. Lai ◽  
Carlos Abril ◽  
Juan S. Barajas-Gamboa ◽  
Ricard Corcelles ◽  
...  

As opposed to open surgery procedures, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) utilizes small skin incisions to insert a camera and surgical instruments. MIS has numerous advantages such as reduced postoperative pain, shorter hospital stay, faster recovery time, and reduced learning curve for surgical trainees. MIS comprises surgical approaches, including laparoscopic surgery, endoscopic surgery, and robotic-assisted surgery. Despite the advantages that MIS provides to patients and surgeons, it remains limited by the lost sense of touch due to the indirect contact with tissues under operation, especially in robotic-assisted surgery. Surgeons, without haptic feedback, could unintentionally apply excessive forces that may cause tissue damage. Therefore, incorporating tactile sensation into MIS tools has become an interesting research topic. Designing, fabricating, and integrating force sensors onto different locations on the surgical tools are currently under development by several companies and research groups. In this context, electrical force sensing modality, including piezoelectric, resistive, and capacitive sensors, is the most conventionally considered approach to measure the grasping force, manipulation force, torque, and tissue compliance. For instance, piezoelectric sensors exhibit high sensitivity and accuracy, but the drawbacks of thermal sensitivity and the inability to detect static loads constrain their adoption in MIS tools. Optical-based tactile sensing is another conventional approach that facilitates electrically passive force sensing compatible with magnetic resonance imaging. Estimations of applied loadings are calculated from the induced changes in the intensity, wavelength, or phase of light transmitted through optical fibers. Nonetheless, new emerging technologies are also evoking a high potential of contributions to the field of smart surgical tools. The recent development of flexible, highly sensitive tactile microfluidic-based sensors has become an emerging field in tactile sensing, which contributed to wearable electronics and smart-skin applications. Another emerging technology is imaging-based tactile sensing that achieved superior multi-axial force measurements by implementing image sensors with high pixel densities and frame rates to track visual changes on a sensing surface. This article aims to review the literature on MIS tactile sensing technologies in terms of working principles, design requirements, and specifications. Moreover, this work highlights and discusses the promising potential of a few emerging technologies towards establishing low-cost, high-performance MIS force sensing.

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 1115-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari L. Ring ◽  
Pedro T. Ramirez ◽  
Lesley B. Conrad ◽  
William Burke ◽  
R. Wendel Naumann ◽  
...  

ObjectivesTo evaluate the role of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in gynecologic oncology fellowship training and fellows’ predictions of their use of MIS in their future practice.MethodsAll fellows-in-training in American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology–approved training programs were surveyed in 2012 through an online or mailed-paper survey. Data were analyzed and compared to results of a similar 2007 survey.ResultsOf 172 fellows, 69 (40%) responded. Ninety-nine percent of respondents (n = 68) indicated that MIS was either very important or important in gynecologic oncology, a proportion essentially unchanged from 2007 (100%). Compared to 2007, greater proportions of fellows considered laparoscopic radical hysterectomy and node dissection for cervical cancer (87% vs 54%; P < 0.0001) and trachelectomy and staging for cervical cancer (83% vs 32%; P < 0.0001) appropriate for MIS. Of the respondents, 92% believed that maximum or some emphasis should be placed on robotic-assisted surgery and 89% on traditional laparoscopy during fellowship training. Ten percent rated their fellowship training in laparoendoscopic single-site surgery as very poor; 44% said that the question was not applicable. Most respondents (60%) in 2012 performed at least 11 procedures per month, whereas most respondents (45%) in 2007 performed 6 to 10 procedures per month (P = 0.005). All respondents at institutions where robotic surgery was used were allowed to operate at the robotic console, and 63% of respondents reported that in robotic-assisted surgery cases when a fellow sat at the robot, the fellow performed more than 50% of the case at the console.ConclusionsThese findings indicate that MIS in gynecologic oncology is here to stay. Fellowship programs should develop a systematic approach to training in MIS and in individual MIS platforms as they become more prevalent. Fellowship programs should also develop and apply an objective assessment of minimum proficiency in MIS to ensure that programs are adequately preparing trainees.


2003 ◽  
Vol 773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith J. Rebello ◽  
Kyle S. Lebouitz ◽  
Michele Migliuolo

AbstractThe development of sophisticated endoscopic tools and the recent introduction of robotics are expanding the applications of minimally invasive surgery. The lack of tactile feedback in the currently available endoscopic and robotic telemanipulation systems however represents a significant limitation. A need has arisen for the development of surgical instruments having integrated sensors. Current efforts to integrate sensors into or onto surgical tools has focused on fabrication of sensors on silicon, polyimide, or some other substrate and then attaching the sensors to a tool by hand or machine with epoxy, tape, or some other glue layer. Attaching the sensor in this manner has certain deficiencies. In particular, this method of attaching sensors to a surgical tool limits the sensors size, increases its thickness, and further constrains where the sensor can be placed. A method of fabricating tactile sensors on surgical instruments that addresses these deficiencies is discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Eduardo Alberto González-Bonilla ◽  
Jesús Emmanuel Rosas-Nava ◽  
Juan Eduardo Sánchez-Núñez ◽  
Mario Iván Doria-Lozano ◽  
Víctor Enrique Corona-Montes ◽  
...  

On March 11, 2020, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic and has created an impact like no other on health systems worldwide. A restructuring in the priority of patient care has currently taken place that is based on the patient’s underlying pathology.  Urology services are no exception, postponing all the elective surgeries that can be delayed without putting the patient at risk. A surgical protocol has been adopted during the pandemic that attempts to reduce the amount of time the operating room is in use, as well as the risk for postoperative complications, so that hospital stay can be reduced.   In such a setting, minimally invasive surgery, such as laparoscopic and robotic-assisted surgery, can play a beneficial role in treating oncologic pathologies that cannot be deferred. Based on the best evidence that has currently been published and the guidelines of international associations, this paper summarizes the recommendations regarding urologic laparoscopic and robotic-assisted surgery in times of COVID-19.


2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin-Hsing Kuo ◽  
Jian S. Dai

A crucial design challenge in minimally invasive surgical (MIS) robots is the provision of a fully decoupled four degrees-of-freedom (4-DOF) remote center-of-motion (RCM) for surgical instruments. In this paper, we present a new parallel manipulator that can generate a 4-DOF RCM over its end-effector and these four DOFs are fully decoupled, i.e., each of them can be independently controlled by one corresponding actuated joint. First, we revisit the remote center-of-motion for MIS robots and introduce a projective displacement representation for coping with this special kinematics. Next, we present the proposed new parallel manipulator structure and study its geometry and motion decouplebility. Accordingly, we solve the inverse kinematics problem by taking the advantage of motion decouplebility. Then, via the screw system approach, we carry out the Jacobian analysis for the manipulator, by which the singular configurations are identified. Finally, we analyze the reachable and collision-free workspaces of the proposed manipulator and conclude the feasibility of this manipulator for the application in minimally invasive surgery.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pinyo Puangmali ◽  
Kaspar Althoefer ◽  
Lakmal D. Seneviratne ◽  
Declan Murphy ◽  
Prokar Dasgupta

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