title: Online estimation of laser incision depth for transoral microsurgery: approach and preliminary evaluation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The use of lasers in transoral surgery enables precise tissue incision with minimal adverse effects on surrounding structures. Nonetheless, the lack of haptic feedback during laser cutting impairs the surgeon's perception of the incision depth, potentially leading to undesired tissue damage.
  
  
  METHODS
  This paper presents a novel approach, based on statistical regression analysis, to estimate the laser incision depth in soft tissue. User trials were conducted in a laser surgery set-up, to verify the effectiveness of online estimation of incision depth in supporting precise tissue cutting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The estimation accuracy was verified on ex vivo muscle tissue, revealing a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.1 mm for depths ranging up to 1.4 mm. Online estimation of depth has the potential to significantly improve the incision control of users.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The proposed approach was successful in producing estimations of laser cutting depth in ex vivo muscle tissue. Further investigation is required to validate this approach on other types of tissue. Providing depth estimation during laser cutting allows users to perform more precise incisions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Loris
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fichera
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pardo
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Brain Technologies, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Placido
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Illiano
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Jesùs
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Darwin G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Caldwell
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Leonardo S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Mattos
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D053685:Laser Therapy; D008866:Microsurgery / Q000379:methods*; D012044:Regression Analysis
keywords: biomedical robotics; laser incision modelling; robotic surgery; transoral laser surgery