An Autoclavable Steerable Cannula Manual Deployment Device: Design and Accuracy Analysis.

Area of Science:

• Medical robotics
• Minimally invasive surgery
• Biomedical engineering

Background:

• Interventional tasks like biopsies and drug delivery require precise access to locations identified in medical images.
• Conventional surgical needles lack steerability, while concentric tube continuum devices offer curved trajectory steering, typically as robotic systems.
• Manual actuation of concentric tube devices simplifies regulatory approval (FDA/IRB) compared to motorized systems, facilitating early clinical adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel manual actuation device for deploying steerable cannulas.
• To focus the design on compactness, modularity, usability, and sterilizability for clinical settings.
• To detail the kinematic mapping for an example concentric tube device and assess its accuracy.

Main Methods:

• Development of a compact, modular, and sterilizable manual actuation device for steerable cannulas.
• Detailed kinematic mapping from joint space to Cartesian space for a concentric tube device.
• Accuracy assessment in free space and in an image-guided surgery setting using tracked 2D ultrasound.

Main Results:

• The manual actuation device was designed with a focus on key clinical requirements.
• Kinematic mapping was successfully detailed for the concentric tube device.
• The device demonstrated accuracy in both free space and image-guided ultrasound settings.

Conclusions:

• Manual actuation offers a viable and simpler pathway for clinical translation of steerable concentric tube devices.
• The presented device design addresses critical factors for usability and deployment in interventional procedures.
• The findings support the potential of manually actuated steerable cannulas in image-guided interventions.