Design of a Non-Assembly Articulating Neuroendoscopic Forceps

Minimally invasive surgery has some major benefits over traditional open surgery for the patient, but makes surgery more complex for the surgeon. Articulating instruments can regain some of the manoeuvrability that is lost by using a small incision. However, in endoscopic neurosurgery such articulating devices do currently not exist, due to...

Automated classification of brain tissue: Comparison between hyperspectral imaging and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

In neurosurgery, technical solutions for visualizing the border between healthy brain and tumor tissue is of great value, since they enable the surgeon to achieve gross total resection while minimizing the risk of damage to eloquent areas. By using real-time non-ionizing imaging techniques, such as hyperspectral imaging (HSI), the spectral...

Towards real-time identification of brain tumors by integrating diffuse reflectance spectroscopy in a neurosurgical instrument

Brain tumors account for approximately just 2% of all cancers worldwide, but have a noticeable impact on cancer morbidity and mortality. Removal of brain tumors poses a big challenge for neurosurgeons, pediatricians and neuro-oncologists. An important aspect of this challenge is to adequately differentiate between tumor tissue and healthy brain...

The design of an anthropomorphic head phantom for neurosurgical planning, education and training

Neurosurgery is technically challenging because of the inaccessibility and sensitivity of the brain. The risk of complications for the patient is high and simulation-based training is therefore preferred. However, surgical training in cadavers and virtual reality is not satisfactory. A phantom is a model of organs or tissues consisting of tissue...

An intravascular stabilization method of the Excimer Laser Assisted Non-occlusive Anastomosis (ELANA) technique

The Excimer Laser Assisted Non-Occlusive Anastomoses (ELANA) technique is used to create anastomoses between major arteries in the brain while avoiding the dangerous temporary occlusion of the cerebral blood ow. This decreases the risk of complica ons due to hypoxia of the brain, but the surgery is long and requires a highly skilled vascular...

Stability metrics for optic radiation tractography: Towards damage prediction after resective surgery

Background An accurate delineation of the optic radiation (OR) using diffusion MR tractography may reduce the risk of a visual field deficit after temporal lobe resection. However, tractography is prone to generate spurious streamlines, which deviate strongly from neighboring streamlines and hinder a reliable distance measurement between the...

Review of techniques to achieve optical surface cleanliness and their potential application to surgical endoscopes

A clear visualization of the operative field is of critical importance in endoscopic surgery. During surgery the endoscope lens can get fouled by body fluids (eg, blood), ground substance, rinsing fluid, bone dust, or smoke plumes, resulting in visual impairment. As a result, surgeons spend part of the procedure on intermittent cleaning of...

The Bimanual Control Of A Multi-Branched Instrument

Long slender instruments used in Endonasal Surgery have two main limitations, the first being that current instruments have a fixed shape so that difficult positioned lesions cannot be reached. The other limitation is caused by the colliding of instrument shafts when multiple shafts are inserted in the surgical corridor, reducing the instrument...

Advanced Path Planning for a Neurosurgical Flexible Catheter: Improving the performance of sampling-based motion planning

At Mechatronics in Medicine (MiM) Laboratory of Imperial College London, a neurosurgical steerable flexible probe ( STING) that is used to access deep brain lesions through curved trajectories is currently being developed. The focus of my research project is mainly on trajectory planning of the flexible probe i.e. investigation on how to...