Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19027, United States of America.
Bioinspir Biomim. 2018 Apr 18;13(3):036013. doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/aaa348.
The focus of this paper is to present new designs of innovative bioinspired needles to be used during percutaneous procedures. Insect stingers have been known to easily penetrate soft tissues. Bioinspired needles mimicking the barbs in a honeybee stinger were developed for a smaller insertion force, which can provide a less invasive procedure. Decreasing the insertion force will decrease the tissue deformation, which is essential for more accurate targeting. In this study, some design parameters, in particular, barb shape and geometry (i.e. front angle, back angle, and height) were defined, and their effects on the insertion force were investigated. Three-dimensional printing technology was used to manufacture bioinspired needles. A specially-designed insertion test setup using tissue mimicking polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gels was developed to measure the insertion and extraction forces. The barb design parameters were then experimentally modified through detailed experimental procedures to further reduce the insertion force. Different scales of the barbed needles were designed and used to explore the size-scale effect on the insertion force. To further investigate the efficacy of the proposed needle design in real surgeries, preliminary ex vivo insertion tests into bovine liver tissue were performed. Our results show that the insertion force of the needles in different scales decreased by 21-35% in PVC gel insertion tests, and by 46% in bovine liver tissue insertion tests.
本文的重点是提出用于经皮手术的新型创新仿生针的设计。昆虫的刺很容易穿透软组织。为了减小插入力，我们开发了模仿蜜蜂刺倒钩的仿生针，从而实现更微创的手术。减小插入力将减少组织变形，这对于更精确的靶向至关重要。在这项研究中，定义了一些设计参数，特别是倒钩的形状和几何形状（即前角、后角和高度），并研究了它们对插入力的影响。使用三维打印技术制造仿生针。设计了一种特殊的插入测试装置，使用组织模拟聚氯乙烯（PVC）凝胶来测量插入和拔出力。然后通过详细的实验程序对倒钩设计参数进行了实验性修改，以进一步减小插入力。设计并使用了不同比例的带倒钩的针，以探索尺寸比例效应对插入力的影响。为了进一步研究拟议的针设计在实际手术中的效果，在牛肝组织上进行了初步的离体插入测试。我们的结果表明，在 PVC 凝胶插入测试中，不同比例的针的插入力降低了 21-35%，在牛肝组织插入测试中降低了 46%。
