An MRI-compatible surgical robot for precise radiological interventions.
OBJECTIVE
A variety of medical robots have been developed in recent years. MRI, including MR angiography and morphological imaging, with its excellent soft-tissue contrast is attractive for the development of interventional MRI-guided therapies and operations. This paper presents a telerobotic device for use in CT- and/or MR-guided radiological interventions. A robotic device for precise needle insertion during MR-guided therapy of spinal diseases will be briefly described.


METHODS
Actuation of robots in an MRI environment is difficult due to the presence of strong magnetic fields. Therefore, the robot was constructed of nonmagnetic materials. The system frame was built from polyether ether ketone (PEEK) and fiber-reinforced epoxy, and actuated using ultrasonic and pneumatic motors. Completely MR-compatible sensors were developed for positioning control.


RESULTS
Accuracy evaluation procedures and phantom tests were performed, with the required accuracy of approximately 1 mm being achieved and no significant artifacts being caused by the robotic device during MR image acquisition.
Hempel
Eckhard
E
Institute for Medical Engineering and Biophysics , Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe , Germany. eckhard.hempel@siemens.com
Fischer
Harald
H
Gumb
Lothar
L
Höhn
Thomas
T
Krause
Holger
H
Voges
Udo
U
Breitwieser
Helmut
H
Gutmann
Bernd
B
Durke
Jürgen
J
Bock
Michael
M
Melzer
Andreas
A
D000818:Animals; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D007278:Injections, Spinal / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D023421:Models, Animal; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012371:Robotics; D013131:Spine / Q000473:pathology; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013552:Swine