A novel approach to an automated needle insertion in brachytherapy procedures

One of the most challenging phases in interstitial brachytherapy is the placement of the needles. In these medical procedures, the needles are inserted inside the tissue to guide the positioning of the radioactive sources. The low-dose-rate radioactive sources are placed inside the tissue permanently, whereas a radioactive source in the high-dose-rate brachytherapy is temporarily placed in the desired positions so that the delivery of the prescription dose to the clinical targets can be achieved. Consequently, the precise needle placement directly influences the radiation dose delivery and the treatment outcomes of patients. Any deviation from the desired position of the radioactive sources can cause a suboptimal dose distribution and inadequate tumor coverage. Therefore, it is of significant importance to develop a robust and sophisticated tool that can perform the automatic needle placement with a high level of accuracy for different medical procedures and conditions. In this study, we propose a novel concept for the automatic needle insertion using a new miniature automated robotic system. The mathematical model of this system was presented in detail, allowing the implementation of the model predictive control that can be used to govern the mechanism. The purpose of this approach was to minimize the lateral components of the generalized reactive force which is responsible for the tissue displacement and, consequently, for the needle deflection. The proposed approach was designed to predict and to compensate for the unmeasured disturbances, such as needle deflection or tissue resistance and reactive force, and it was capable of correcting them without waiting until the effect appears at the output of the system causing the needle deviation from the desired positions. The extensive simulation of the system was presented to evaluate the feasibility of the method and the parameters of interest including displacements, system errors and system responses to the change in the environmental conditions.