Ultrasound-guided needle insertion robotic system for percutaneous puncture

Purpose Ultrasound (US)-guided percutaneous puncture technology can realize real-time, minimally invasive interventional therapy without radiation. The location accuracy of the puncture needle directly determines the precision and safety of the operation. It is a challenge for novices and young surgeons to perform a free-hand puncture guided by the ultrasound images to achieve the desired accuracy. This work aims to develop a robotic system to assist surgeons to perform percutaneous punctures with high precision. Methods An US-guided puncture robot was designed to allow the mounting and control of the needle to achieve localization and insertion. The US probe fitted within the puncture robot was held by a passive arm. Moreover, the puncture robot was calibrated with a novel calibration method to achieve coordinate transformation between the robot and the US image. The system allowed the operators to plan the puncture target and puncture path on US images, and the robot performed needle insertion automatically. Five groups of puncture experiments were performed to verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed robotic system. Results Assisted by the robotic system, the positioning and orientation accuracies of the needle insertion were 0.9 +/- 0.29 mm and 0.76 +/- 0.34 degrees, respectively. These are improved compared with the results obtained with the free-hand puncture (1.82 +/- 0.51 mm and 2.79 +/- 1.32 degrees, respectively). Moreover, the proposed robotic system can reduce the operation time and number of needle insertions (14.28 +/- 3.21 s and one needle insertion, respectively), compared with the free-hand puncture (25.14 +/- 6.09 s and 1.96 +/- 0.68 needle insertions, respectively). Conclusion A robotic system for percutaneous puncture guided by US images was developed and demonstrated. The experimental results indicate that the proposed system is accurate and feasible. It can assist novices and young surgeons to perform the puncture operation with increased accuracy.