Title
Robotically assisted ureteroscopy for kidney exploration.
Abstract
Ureteroscopy is a minimally invasive procedure for diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of urinary tract pathologies. It is most commonly performed in the diagnostic work-up of hematuria and the diagnosis and treatment of upper urinary tract malignancies and calculi. Ergonomic and visualization challenges as well as radiation exposure are limitations to conventional ureteroscopy. For example, for diagnostic tumor inspection, the urologist has to maneuver the ureteroscope through each of the 6 to 12 calyces in the kidney under fluoroscopy to ensure complete surveillance. Therefore, we have been developing a robotic system to "power drive" a flexible fiber-optic ureteroscope with 3D tip tracking and pre-operative image overlay. Our goal is to provide the urologist precise control of the ureteroscope tip with less radiation exposure. Our prototype system allows control of the three degrees of freedom of the ureteroscope via brushless motors and a joystick interface. The robot provides a steady platform for controlling the ureteroscope. Furthermore, the robot design facilitates a quick "snap-in" of the ureteroscope, thus allowing the ureteroscope to be mounted midway through the procedure. We have completed the mechanical system and the controlling software and begun evaluation using a kidney phantom. We put MRI-compatible fiducials on the phantom and obtained MR images. We registered these images with the robot using an electromagnetic tracking system and paired-point registration. The system is described and initial evaluation results are given in this paper.
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1117/12.2253862
Proceedings of SPIE
Keywords
Field
DocType
Uretersocopy,robotics,image guidance,electromagnetic tracking,evaluation
Robotic systems,Computer vision,Visualization,Imaging phantom,Flexible ureteroscope,Minimally invasive procedures,Artificial intelligence,Radiology,Radiation exposure,Ureteroscopy,Robotics,Physics
Conference
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
10135
0277-786X
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.48
0
8
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Hadi F. Talari110.82
Reza Monfaredi2238.16
Emmanuel Wilson372.69
Emily Blum410.48
Christopher E. Bayne510.48
Craig A. Peters6345.55
Anlin Zhang710.48
K Cleary84511.06