title: Ultrasound-guided three-dimensional needle steering in biological tissue with curved surfaces.
abstract: In this paper, we present a system capable of automatically steering a bevel-tipped flexible needle under ultrasound guidance toward a physical target while avoiding a physical obstacle embedded in gelatin phantoms and biological tissue with curved surfaces. An ultrasound pre-operative scan is performed for three-dimensional (3D) target localization and shape reconstruction. A controller based on implicit force control is developed to align the transducer with curved surfaces to assure the maximum contact area, and thus obtain an image of sufficient quality. We experimentally investigate the effect of needle insertion system parameters such as insertion speed, needle diameter and bevel angle on target motion to adjust the parameters that minimize the target motion during insertion. A fast sampling-based path planner is used to compute and periodically update a feasible path to the target that avoids obstacles. We present experimental results for target reconstruction and needle insertion procedures in gelatin-based phantoms and biological tissue. Mean targeting errors of 1.46±0.37 mm, 1.29±0.29 mm and 1.82±0.58 mm are obtained for phantoms with inclined, curved and combined (inclined and curved) surfaces, respectively, for insertion distance of 86-103 mm. The achieved targeting errors suggest that our approach is sufficient for targeting lesions of 3mm radius that can be detected using clinical ultrasound imaging systems.
authors.affiliation: MIRA-Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. Electronic address: m.abayazid@utwente.nl.
authors.forename: Momen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abayazid
authors.affiliation: MIRA-Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. Electronic address: p.lopesdafrotamoreira@utwente.nl.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moreira
authors.affiliation: MIRA-Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. Electronic address: n.shahriari@utwente.nl.
authors.forename: Navid
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shahriari
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, CA 94720-1758, USA. Electronic address: sachinpatil@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Sachin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Patil
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175, USA. Electronic address: ron@cs.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alterovitz
authors.affiliation: MIRA-Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands; University of Groningen and University Medical Centre, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanzeplein 1, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: s.misra@utwente.nl.
authors.forename: Sarthak
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Misra
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D004867:Equipment Design; D005780:Gelatin; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal; D009339:Needles; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005780:Gelatin
keywords: Computer-assisted surgery; Minimally invasive procedures; Needle steering; Ultrasound