Ly Hiep Hoang, Tanaka Yoshihiro, Fujiwara Michitaka
Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan.
Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg. 2021 Feb;16(2):289-299. doi: 10.1007/s11548-020-02294-w. Epub 2021 Jan 3.
Localization of an early stage gastric tumor is easily performed in conventional open surgery, whereas it is a difficult procedure in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). A tactile sensor could allow precise resection of the tumor in laparoscopic surgery. The safety of medical tools should be ensured in MIS. Moreover, boundary conditions such as a double-ended beam without a supporting rigid base during tissue palpation were hardly considered. Thus, we suppose that it is informative to assess the normal force and shear force for practical tumor detection considering the boundary condition.
In this study, a tactile sensor with normal and shear force measurement functions using the acoustic reflection principle was developed for gastric tumor detection in MIS. The developed tactile sensor was tested using an artificial phantom of the stomach without a supporting rigid base to evaluate the force response of the sensor in intraoperative tumor localization.
The developed sensor is safe for human tissue and can be sterilized. The experimental results show that the developed tactile sensor has the capability to measure normal and shear forces. In the gastric tumor detection test, the shear force of the sensor was more stable and highly responsive to the tumor position than the normal force, which is greatly affected by the bending of the tissue during the operation.
A two-axis tactile sensor using the acoustic reflection principle was assembled for tissue palpation in MIS. The results showed that the developed sensor is suitable for tumor detection, indicating that the shear force information of the developed sensor is more useful in MIS for early stage gastric tumor localization.
早期胃癌肿瘤的定位在传统开放手术中易于进行，而在微创手术（MIS）中则是一项困难的操作。触觉传感器可使腹腔镜手术中肿瘤的精确切除成为可能。在微创手术中应确保医疗工具的安全性。此外，在组织触诊过程中几乎没有考虑诸如无支撑刚性底座的双端梁等边界条件。因此，我们认为考虑边界条件来评估实际肿瘤检测中的法向力和剪切力是有益的。
在本研究中，开发了一种利用声反射原理具有法向力和剪切力测量功能的触觉传感器，用于微创手术中胃癌肿瘤的检测。使用无支撑刚性底座的胃人工模型对所开发的触觉传感器进行测试，以评估该传感器在术中肿瘤定位时的力响应。
所开发的传感器对人体组织安全且可消毒。实验结果表明，所开发的触觉传感器具有测量法向力和剪切力的能力。在胃癌肿瘤检测测试中，与受手术过程中组织弯曲影响较大的法向力相比，传感器的剪切力更稳定且对肿瘤位置反应更灵敏。
组装了一种利用声反射原理的双轴触觉传感器用于微创手术中的组织触诊。结果表明，所开发的传感器适用于肿瘤检测，这表明所开发传感器的剪切力信息在微创手术中对早期胃癌肿瘤定位更有用。
