title: Reviewing the technological challenges associated with the development of a laparoscopic palpation device.
abstract: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has heralded a revolution in surgical practice, with numerous advantages over open surgery. Nevertheless, it prevents the surgeon from directly touching and manipulating tissue and therefore severely restricts the use of valuable techniques such as palpation. Accordingly a key challenge in MIS is to restore haptic feedback to the surgeon. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in laparoscopic palpation devices (LPDs) with particular focus on device mechanisms, sensors and data analysis. It concludes by examining the challenges that must be overcome to create effective LPD systems that measure and display haptic information to the surgeon for improved intraoperative assessment.
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. p.r.culmer@leeds.ac.uk
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Culmer
authors.forename: Jenifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barrie
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hewson
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levesley
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mon-Williams
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jayne
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Neville
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D020706:Laparoscopes; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D010173:Palpation / Q000379:methods*; D012371:Robotics / Q000379:methods*; D013672:Technology / Q000295:instrumentation; D014110:Touch; D014584:User-Computer Interface