@article {Fichtinger2006, title = {Robotically assisted prostate brachytherapy with transrectal ultrasound guidance{\textendash}Phantom experiments}, journal = {Brachytherapy}, volume = {5}, number = {1}, year = {2006}, pages = {14{\textendash}26}, publisher = {Engineering Research Center, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218-2682, USA gabor@cs jhu edu}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To report the preliminary experimental results obtained with a robot-assisted transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided prostate brachytherapy system METHODS AND MATERIALS: The system consists of a TRUS unit, a spatially coregistered needle insertion robot, and an FDA-approved treatment planning, image-registered implant system The robot receives each entry/target coordinate pair of the implant plan, inserts a preloaded needle, and then the seeds are deposited The needles/sources are tracked in TRUS, thus allowing the plan to be updated as the procedure progresses RESULTS: The first insertion attempt was recorded for each needle, without adjustment All clinically relevant locations were reached in a prostate phantom Nonparallel, parallel needle trajectories were demonstrated Based on TRUS, the average transverse placement error was 2 mm (worst case 2 5 mm, 80\% less than 2 mm), and the average sagittal error was 2 5 mm (worst case 5 0 mm, 70\% less than 2 5 mm) CONCLUSIONS: The concept, technical viability of robot-assisted brachytherapy were demonstrated in phantoms The kinematically decoupled robotic assistant device is inherently safe Overall performance was promising, but further optimization is necessary to prove the possibility of improved dosimetry

}, keywords = {Anatomic, Brachytherapy, Endosonography, Equipment Design, Humans, instrumentation, Male, methods, Models, Prostatic Neoplasms, radiotherapy/ultrasonography, Rectum, Robotics}, doi = {10 1016/j brachy 2005 10 003}, url = {http://dx doi org/10 1016/j brachy 2005 10 003}, author = {Gabor Fichtinger and E. Clif Burdette and Attila Tanacs and Alexandru Patriciu and Dumitru Mazilu and Whitcomb, Louis L. and Dan Stoianovici} } @article {Cleary2005, title = {Precision placement of instruments for minimally invasive procedures using a "needle driver" robot}, journal = {international journal of medical robotics computer assisted surgery MRCAS}, volume = {1}, number = {2}, year = {2005}, month = {Jan}, pages = {40{\textendash}47}, abstract = {

Medical practice continues to move toward less invasive procedures Many of these procedures require the precision placement of a needle in the anatomy Over the past several years, our research team has been investigating the use of a robotic needle driver to assist the physician in this task This paper summarizes our work in this area The robotic system is briefly described, followed by a description of a clinical trial in spinal nerve blockade The robot was used under joystick control to place a 22 gauge needle in the spines of 10 patients using fluoroscopic imaging The results were equivalent to the current manual procedure We next describe our follow-up clinical application in lung biopsy for lung cancer screening under CT fluoroscopy The system concept is discussed, the results of a phantom study are presented A start-up company named ImageGuide has recently been formed to commercialize the robot Their revised robot design is presented, along with plans to install a ceiling-mounted version of the robot in the CT fluoroscopy suite at Georgetown University

}, keywords = {Biopsy, Cadaver, Equipment Design, Fluoroscopy, Humans, Imaging, instrumentation, instrumentation/methods, Lung, Lung Neoplasms, methods, Minimally Invasive, Needles, Nerve Block, pathology, pathology/radiography, Phantoms, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Robotics, Spinal Nerves, Surgical Procedures, Tomography, X-Ray Computed}, doi = {10 1002/rcs 40}, url = {http://dx doi org/10 1002/rcs 40}, author = {Kevin Cleary and Vance Watson and David Lindisch and Russell H. Taylor and Gabor Fichtinger and Sheng Xu and Charles White and John Donlon and Michael Taylor and Alexandru Patriciu and Dumitru Mazilu and Dan Stoianovici} } @article {Fichtinger2002, title = {Robotically Assisted Prostate Biopsy And Therapy With Intra-Operative CT Guidance}, journal = {Journal of Academic Radiology}, volume = {9 no 1}, year = {2002}, pages = {60-74}, author = {Gabor Fichtinger and Theodore DeWeese and Alexandru Patriciu and Attila Tanacs and Dumitru Mazilu and James Anderson and Ken Masamune and Russell H. Taylor and Dan Stoianovici} } @conference {Fichtinger2001b, title = {Robotically Assisted Percutaneous Local Therapy and Biopsy}, booktitle = {Workshop proceedings of the Tenth IEEE International Conference of Advance Robotics}, year = {2001}, pages = {133-151}, author = {Gabor Fichtinger and Ken Masamune and Alexandru Patriciu and Attila Tanacs and James Anderson and Theodore DeWeese and Russell H. Taylor and Dan Stoianovici} } @article {Masamune2001, title = {System for robotically assisted percutaneous procedures with computed tomography guidance}, journal = {Journal of Computer Aided Surgery}, volume = {6}, number = {6}, year = {2001}, pages = {370{\textendash}383}, abstract = {

We present the prototype of an image-guided robotic system for accurate, consistent placement of percutaneous needles in soft-tissue targets under CT guidance inside the gantry of a CT scanner The couch-mounted system consists of a seven-degrees-of-freedom passive mounting arm, a remote center-of-motion robot, and a motorized needle-insertion device Single-image-based coregistration of the robot, image space is achieved by stereotactic localization using a miniature version of the BRW head frame built into the radiolucent needle driver The surgeon plans, controls the intervention in the scanner room on a desktop computer that receives DICOM images from the scanner The system does not need calibration, employs pure image-based registration, and does not utilize any vendor-specific hardware or software features In the open air, where there is no needle-tissue interaction, we systematically achieved an accuracy better than 1 mm in hitting targets at 5-8 cm from the fulcrum point In the phantom, the orientation accuracy was 0 6 degrees, and the distance between the needle tip, the target was 1 04 mm Experiments indicated that this robotic system is suitable for a variety of percutaneous clinical applications

}, keywords = {Biopsy, Computer-Assisted, Humans, Image Processing, Imaging, instrumentation, instrumentation/methods, Needle, Phantoms, Robotics, Surgery, Tomography, User-Computer Interface, X-Ray Computed}, doi = {10 1002/igs 10024}, url = {http://dx doi org/10 1002/igs 10024}, author = {Ken Masamune and Gabor Fichtinger and Alexandru Patriciu and Robert Susil and Russell H. Taylor and Louis Kavoussi and James Anderson and Ichiro Sakuma and Takeyoshi Dohi and Dan Stoianovici} } @conference {Patriciu2000, title = {CT-Guided Robotic Prostate Biopsy}, booktitle = {18th World Congress on Endourology \& SWL}, year = {2000}, author = {Alexandru Patriciu and Dumitru Mazilu and Dan Stoianovici and Alexandru Stanimir and Robert Susil and Ken Masamune and Gabor Fichtinger and Russell H. Taylor and James Anderson and Louis Kavoussi} }