Computer-assisted needle insertion for abdominal interventions

Abstract

Clinical practice is increasingly replacing traditional open surgical procedures with minimally invasive techniques for cancer diagnosis and therapy. These procedures typically require placement of a surgical instrument into the organ of interest with a high degree of accuracy. In general, the success of a treatment or of a diagnosis is highly dependent on the accuracy of instrument insertion and thus depends crucially on the skills and experience of the physician. While intra-operative navigation has been proven to be highly effective in interventions on bony or sufficiently rigid structures, such as the spine and the brain, computer aided soft tissue procedures are still limited to non-invasive diagnostics and surgical planning. This can primarily be attributed to the lack of robust methods for compensation of intra-interventional organ motion caused by respiration, heartbeat, patient movement and manipulation by surgical instruments. To address these issues, we developed and evaluated a clinically applicable concept for computer-assisted percutaneous needle insertion into soft tissue featuring high accuracy and an efficient guidance concept. This paper summarizes our research activities related to the project.