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Improving tactile sensation in laparoscopic surgery by overcoming size restrictions

  • C. Wiederer EMAIL logo , M. Fröhlich and M.W. Strohmayr
Published/Copyright: September 12, 2015
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Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering
From the journal Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering Volume 1 Issue 1

Abstract

Hepatic tumors appear as stiff inclusions within the surrounding soft, healthy tissue. In open surgery they are searched for by manual palpation with the gloved fingertip. However, to exploit the benefits of MIS it is mandatory to implement a substitution for the human sense of touch. Therefore, a tactile instrument has been developed with the aim of enlarging the sensing area at the tool tip once it enters the abdominal cavity through the trocar. The provision of a large sensitive surface enables the detection of nearly all sizes of tumors and decreases the time needed for the performance of this task. A prototype was manufactured by laser sintering in PA serving as a carrier for an existing flexible silicone sensor. Automated as well as manual subject palpation tests have shown that a prototypical instrument with a laterally opening lid would be a suitable device for tumor detection in laparoscopic liver surgery.

Keywords: minimally invasive surgery; tactile tools; human sense of touch; artificial skin; artificial tactility; intraoperative palpation; hepatic tumor detection; hardness differentiation

1 Introduction

Minimally invasive surgery is often preferred to an open procedure to reduce trauma, haemorrhage and recovery time for the patient. The diagnosis and localization of liver tumors, however, is performed by stroking across the surface of the diseased organ as the cancerous nodes can be felt as stiff inclusions within the soft, healthy tissue. Due to the sealed peritoneum with only small access ports at the trocars this method cannot be adopted in laparoscopy. Therefore, tactile probes have been developed by different research groups, e.g. Trejos [1] and Schostek [2]. However, they all exploit merely the limited space determined by the diameter of a 10mm trocar as the sensor unit of these devices is simply placed at the tip of a long slender probe without a mechanism for enlargement of the palpation area.

Therefore, a laparoscopic instrument equipped with a laterally opening lid has been developed to provide a large sensitive area for palpation of hepatic cancerous lumps. Mechanical requirements have been determined as guidelines for the design. Thereby, the most important target was to create a large sensing area despite the size constraints of a 10mm trocar. Furthermore, it was prescribed to keep the mechanics as simple as possible to maintain low effort and costs for manufacturing. Storage for the sensor unit plus the associated electronics had to be provided within the concept and, additionally, the design had to combine compliance and rigidity, thus, a solid structure around the flexible sensor as palpation would otherwise not be possible.

The prototypical version laser sintered in polyamide (PA) is pictured in Figure 1. Its diameter is 10 mm in the closed state so that it fits through a standard trocar. However, when opened it provides a tactile surface of 18 mm × 20 mm which is unique in terms of minimally invasive tactile tools. The prototype could already be used for test series to evaluate the suitability of the innovative construction.

2 Experiments

During the experimental phase automated and manual subject palpation tests were performed to evaluate the innovative instrument design which was selected out of various concepts. Therefore, a flexible silicone sensor developed by Strohmayr [3] was mounted to the tip of the prototypical tool. The sensory system consists of two silicone foil substrates which both carry parallel polymer based circuit tracks (PBCTs) including conductive particles. By merging the two layers the orthogonally arranged PBCTs create crossing points, so called tactile sensing elements or taxels. Thus, an externally applied force can be measured according to the decrease of resistivity between the approximated conductive lines as it can be seen in Figure 2. For restoring the original state of the sensor after an indentation polymer spacers are located within the empty spaces of the PBCT lattice structure.

Figure 1 A prototypical version of the laparoscopic instrument was laser sintered in polyamide (PA). It provides storage for the electronic parts of the sensor, e.g. the wires, a rigid carrier for the sensory unit and a laterall opening mechanism for enlargement of the palaption area despite the size restrictions of the trocar.
Figure 1

A prototypical version of the laparoscopic instrument was laser sintered in polyamide (PA). It provides storage for the electronic parts of the sensor, e.g. the wires, a rigid carrier for the sensory unit and a laterall opening mechanism for enlargement of the palaption area despite the size restrictions of the trocar.

Figure 2 The detection of externally applied forces with the flexible silicone sensor is based on a decrease of resistivity through the approximation of the conductive polymer based circuit tracks (PBCTs) at their crossing points (taxel).
Figure 2

The detection of externally applied forces with the flexible silicone sensor is based on a decrease of resistivity through the approximation of the conductive polymer based circuit tracks (PBCTs) at their crossing points (taxel).

For the testing phase the sensor was attached to the mechanical part of the instrument by use of a nonconductive adhesive tape in order to avoid unintended contact of the PBCTs among each other. For the automated test series the prototype was mounted onto a linear rail. Tumor samples were created on the base of the research of Fröhlich [4] by equipping soft silicone as well as porcine liver specimen with hard silicone nodules. They were placed directly underneath the tactile area of the tool and on top of a scale so that the forces which have been applied during the palpation tests could subsequently be calculated from the gathered weight data. The instrument was automatically driven down onto the tumor samples for palpation as it can be seen in Figure 3. Thereby, the sensor signals were recorded so that they could later be processed in MATLAB and displayed within a 3D bar graph array for better visualization of the effects occurring at the sensory tool tip. Finally, the data has been evaluated and compared for different tumor sample sizes and positions.

Figure 3 The prototypical tactile instrument was mounted to a linear rail for automated palpation tests on soft silicone and liver samples equipped with artificial tumor inclusions made of hard silicone.
Figure 3

The prototypical tactile instrument was mounted to a linear rail for automated palpation tests on soft silicone and liver samples equipped with artificial tumor inclusions made of hard silicone.

The setup for the manually performed palpation tests is pictured in Figure 4. Subjects were asked to explore liver samples equipped with three or four artificial tumors using the tactile instrument. Their task was to determine the number of hidden lumps by interpreting the sensor signal displayed on a screen in front of them in real time. Moreover, they were asked to rate their confidence about the detection of a tumor and to assess the handling of the tool. In addition, the time which elapsed until the detection of a lump was noted for each candidate. The samples have again been placed on top of a scale so that the forces applied during manual palpation could be calculated from the collected weight data after the tests were completed.

3 Results

The sensor data recorded during the automated experiments was evaluated and displayed as a 3D color-coded bar graph. Blue color stands for low, red for high external load, thus, forces applied onto the sensor through palpation. As higher forces occur for higher spring constants at equal indentation depth stiff inclusions can be detected within the surrounding soft matrix by use of the developed

Figure 4 For the series of manual palpation tests the subjects were asked to detect the hidden tumors inside the liver samples by using the developed tactile tool. Therefore, the sensor data was displayed on a screen in real time besides the video image of the palpation field and the scale data.
Figure 4

For the series of manual palpation tests the subjects were asked to detect the hidden tumors inside the liver samples by using the developed tactile tool. Therefore, the sensor data was displayed on a screen in real time besides the video image of the palpation field and the scale data.

tactile tool. Figure 5 shows the comparison of the results for a blank liver sample and one equipped with a hard silicone node (Shore A40, Ř 7 mm). Both images show sensor data acquired at an applied pressure of 4.0·10−3 N/mm2 which was calculated by use of the weight values and the size of the sensor area. It can clearly be seen that a stiff inclusion was present within the second sample as high values are present in the lower left corner and the middle of the bar graphs.

Figure 5 3D bar graphs showing the sensor output for palpation tests on hepatic specimen. It is obvious that the left graphic shows the results for a blank sample without an inclusion whereas the presence of a tumor can clearly be confirmed for the right graphic due to the increased values occuring at the taxels in the middle and the lower left corner of the sensor.
Figure 5

3D bar graphs showing the sensor output for palpation tests on hepatic specimen. It is obvious that the left graphic shows the results for a blank sample without an inclusion whereas the presence of a tumor can clearly be confirmed for the right graphic due to the increased values occuring at the taxels in the middle and the lower left corner of the sensor.

Moreover, the manually performed tests revealed that seven of the eight subjects localized all the artificial tumors hidden within the liver samples with high confidence as shown in Figure 6. They took 18s to 80s to find a lump and mostly described the handling as “intuitive” or “simple after getting used to”.

Figure 6 Seven out of eight subjects found all the artificial tumor lumps hidden within the hepatic specimen. Only one test person missed one of the inclusions.
Figure 6

Seven out of eight subjects found all the artificial tumor lumps hidden within the hepatic specimen. Only one test person missed one of the inclusions.

Subjects had to figure out the optimal amount of pressure for palpation on their own to achieve a suitable sensor output. However, they all rapidly noticed that too little forces lead to improper or incomplete contact with the examined tissue, thus, to a weak and inexpressive signal. Furthermore, it was immediately recognized by all of the test persons that when forces were chosen too high, artifacts were caused within the visualized output. These “ghost” tumors could easily be excluded by reducing the load and consequently noticing the simultaneous decrease of the sensor signal over the complete area without any bar graphs remaining at high level. It was calculated that they generally applied pressure values between 6.37·10−3 N/mm2 and 6.51·10−3 N/mm2 with a median value of 6.48·10−3 N/mm2. For one of the subjects an extreme value of 8.15·10−3 N/mm2 was noted which is visualized as a cross above the boxplot in Figure 7.

4 Discussion and future work

The results of the automated palpation tests revealed that it was not possible to distinguish different sizes of stiff inclusions. Moreover, very small artificial nodes (Ř 3.5 mm) were not visible at all within the output signal of the sensor. This is due to the fact that the PBCTs of the sensor array are located in a distance of 2.5 mm which means that the resolution of the sensor is not high enough to recognize variations of only a few millimeters and small inclusions are not detected as they may be located in between the sensitive lines. It is important to improve the sensor resolution as especially tumors with a diameter less than 5 mm cannot be visualized by medical imaging [5].

Figure 7 During the tests in which subjects utilized the prototypical tactile instrument for palpation pressure values between 6.37·10−3 N/mm2 and 6.51·10−3 N/mm2 have been recorded. Only one outlier occured at 8.15·10−3 N/mm2 for one subject.
Figure 7

During the tests in which subjects utilized the prototypical tactile instrument for palpation pressure values between 6.37·10−3 N/mm2 and 6.51·10−3 N/mm2 have been recorded. Only one outlier occured at 8.15·10−3 N/mm2 for one subject.

Trejos et al. [6, 7] stated that with their tactile probe 4N were the optimal amount of force for the detection of hepatic cancer whereas 6N were the maximum load before damage occurred to the delicate tissue. For better comparability the associated pressure values were calculated based on the measurements of their sensitive tool tip. Hence, according to these parameters the optimal pressure is 16.7·10−3 N/mm2 and the maximum 25.0·10−3 N/mm2. Comparing these values to the data acquired during the test series with eight subjects using the instrument with the laterally opening lid it can be said that the new design requires less pressure to achieve suitable sensor signals for tumor detection. More precisely, the median pressure of the subject tests was only 38.8% of the optimal and 25.9% of the maximum determined pressure value. Even the extreme value was only half of the optimal pressure, thus, the applied palpation forces are not critical in terms of causing damage to the examined liver tissue.

It was noticed that artifacts or “ghost” tumors may occur when forces are too high during palpation. Although the test persons did not complain about this fact and were able to distinguish an artifact from a real hard inclusion it should be considered to integrate a warning system for future designs which informs the user about overabundantly applied pressure.

Furthermore, it must be taken into account that currently raw data has been used to create the 3D color-coded bar graphs as well as the real-time visualization of the sensor output for the subject tests. Other groups [1, 2, 8, 9] use filters and image processing to improve the outcome, however, for the experiments with the new laterally opening lid concept it was decided not to affect the acquired data in order to achieve genuine results.

Concerning the mechanical requirements mentioned at the beginning the mechanical structure of the developed instrument has to be enhanced with an articulating head in a future version. The long, slender laparoscopic devices are not easy to handle through the small ports provided by the trocars. Hence, the tool design must incorporate features such as articulating joints to simplify their maneuverability for the surgeon.

It has been shown that the basic mechanical design of the developed prototype can carry a tactile sensor that allows the detection and localization of hard silicone spheres (Shore A40) embedded in a soft silicone matrix and porcine liver specimen. Based on the promising results of this preliminary study a commercially available device can be implemented additionally taking biocompatibility and sterilizability into account. Furthermore, the sensor design must be adapted to the mechanical restrictions, e.g. the wires must run through the hollow shaft of the instrument and none of the sensor components may exceed the edges of the mechanical structure. This is especially important in the closed state of the device as it would otherwise not fit through a 10 mm trocar. Additionally, the tactile tool has to be adapted to the medical environment, e.g. the electronics must be compatible to the human body and vice versa.

Author’s Statement

  1. Conflict of interest: Authors state no conflict of interest. Material and Methods: Informed consent: Informed consent has been obtained from all individuals included in this study. Ethical approval: The research related to human use has been complied with all the relevant national regulations, institutional policies and in accordance the tenets of the Helsinki Declaration, and has been approved by the authors’ institutional review board or equivalent committee.

References

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[3] Strohmayr, M.W. Artificial Skin in Robotics - A Comprehensive Interface for System-Environment Interaction. Dissertation. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) 2012, 217 p.Search in Google Scholar

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Published Online: 2015-9-12
Published in Print: 2015-9-1

© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2015-0035
Keywords for this article
minimally invasive surgery; tactile tools; human sense of touch; artificial skin; artificial tactility; intraoperative palpation; hepatic tumor detection; hardness differentiation
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