Needle puncture forces in liver blood vessels

Abstract

Treatment of liver diseases is often done by means of interventional radiology and thereby needles are widely used. These needles are under constant development and therefore needle-tissue interaction data are necessary. The goal of this study is to provide data on needle forces during puncturing of liver blood vessels. These data can be used to mimic blood vessels in a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) liver phantom, intended for needle development and training purposes. Needle insertion experiments were done on human livers, by puncturing portal veins, hepatic veins, hepatic arteries and liver tissue. The resulting force data show that peak forces are higher during puncturing of liver veins (median=2.20 N, interquartile range=1.46 N to 3.67 N) than during puncturing of liver tissue (median=0.38 N, interquartile range=0.31 N to 0.51 N). The force data were used to find a blood vessel mimicking material. Silicone, with the addition of a mesh fabric, was found to mimic the peak forces of liver veins during needle insertion. A silicone blood vessel was created with use of a 3D-printed blood vessel structure made of water-soluble PVA. The addition of the mesh fabric, furthermore ensures proper bonding between the silicone blood vessel and the PVA liver tissue. The methods described in this study can be used to implant artificial veins in a PVA liver phantom.