These devices will come in handy during laparoscopic surgeries

Jan 23, 2014 10:00 GMT  ·  By

Scientists with the Vanderbilt University in Nashville are currently working on developing a medical probe that would enable surgeons to retain their sense of touch even when conducting laparoscopic surgeries. Bringing this device to the market could significantly benefit patients suffering from cancer.

Vanderbilt investigators explain that surgeons lose the ability to feel patients' internal organs and tissues when they conduct surgeries via robots. They operate through very small incisions, and rely on the use of very narrow instruments, and video feed from cameras, to inform their decisions.

Laparoscopic surgeries are performed because they are less invasive than the normal variety. They also tend to reduce patients' recovery times by several days following general anesthesia. However, surgeons can no longer rely on a procedure called palpation to examine tissues through touch.

The new device, called a palpation probe, is being developed specifically to address this shortcoming. It can easily detect tissue changes such as increase stiffness, something that is very important to know because tumors, for example, tend to be denser than surrounding tissues, IEEE Spectrum reports.

By collecting a variety of readings from several locations in the body, the new probe is able to construct a live 3D map of tumors that clearly showcases their edges. One of the main concerns with cancer surgeries is that surgeons do not remove all diseased tissue, allowing the cancer to return.

According to Vanderbilt biomechatronics engineer Pietro Valdastri, the brain behind the new device, the laparoscopic palpation probe consists of a pressure sensor, a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis magnetic field sensor, a battery, and a wireless microcontroller.

A series of tests conducted on the livers of pigs determined that the probe is accurate to within 8 percent of the actual stiffness level recorded in target tissues. The team explains that additional improvements are possible, highlighting the fact that, currently, the device is just a prototype.

While palpation is not likely to disappear from the operating room any time soon, computer-generated tissue maps may slowly phase them out. “The new generation of surgeons are not doing a lot of open surgery, so they’re not used to palpation,” explains Tim Salcudean, a biomedical engineer at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver.

“If you ask surgeons, they’ll tell you that they need touch feedback, but then they go and perform a vast range of minimally invasive procedures without it. Touch feedback is in the nice-to-have, not the got-to-have category,” says Harvard University professor of engineering Robert Howe, who is a pioneer in the field of remote palpation.