Miniaturised optical fibre based palpations instrument for minimally invasive surgery

Abstract

The lack of tactile and force perception during robot-assisted surgeries could lead to application of inadvertent forces resulting in tissue trauma and accidental tissue damage. In order to perform surgical procedures within tight spaces surrounded by sensitive soft tissues, surgeon’s ability to manoeuvre instruments with precision and control must be enhanced. Further, the tools with built-in tactile and force sensors enable surgeons to investigate surrounding tissues to determine surgical margins for dissection. This paper proposes a novel optical fibre based tactile probe capable of modelling tool tissue interactions to estimate tissue abnormalities. Tissue stiffness is estimated through an indentation technique. The proposed method allows rapid acquisition of tactile data as the instrument rolls over tissue surface in a near frictionless manner. The probe can concurrently measure both indentation force and indentation depth, which can be combined to develop a pseudo-colour stiffness image of the investigated tissue with abnormal regions clearly highlighted.