3D Ultrasound Used to Direct Robotic Surgeries

The scanner could find application in a host of medical settings, according to the researchers, from Duke University (Durham, NC, USA). They reported that the scanner eventually might enable surgeries to be performed without surgeons, a function that could prove valuable in space stations or other remote locations.

Dr. Smith and Eric Pua, a Pratt graduate student who participated in the study, reported the findings in the November 2006 issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control.

In their demonstration, the researchers used 3D ultrasound images to pinpoint in real time the exact location of targets in a simulated surgical procedure. That spatial information then guided a robotically controlled surgical instrument right to its mark.

The scanner could be attached to the surgeon-operated robots that are being increasingly used for performing minimally invasive laparoscopic surgeries on the heart or other organs, according to Dr. Smith. In such operations, surgeons work through tiny "keyhole” incisions, and the new scanner would provide surgeons a more realistic view of the organ they are working on.

Among other applications, surgeons could use the 3D scanner to identify potential tumors in real time during biopsy procedures, making a diagnosis of cancer more difficult to miss, according to the engineers. Currently, clinicians must rely on still images, such as computed tomography (CT) scans, of a patients' organs taken before biopsy to locate lesions suspected to be cancer. As artificial intelligence technology improves in the coming decades, the scanner might even be able to guide surgical robots without the help of a surgeon, the researchers said.

The 3D ultrasound probe has yet to be tested in human patients, according to Dr. Smith, but he added that his team believes the technology is ready for clinical trials. The Duke team in 1987 developed the first 3D ultrasound scanner for imaging the heart in real-time from outside the body. As technology enabled ever smaller ultrasound arrays, the researchers engineered probes that could fit inside catheters threaded through blood vessels to view the vasculature and heart from the inside.

The researchers also have used the scanner to guide the biopsy robot toward a designated target in the gall bladder of an animal that had died. "Once the robot takes over, it sends the needle to within about 1.5 mm of the center of the target,” Dr. Smith said.



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