Design, development and evaluation of a compact telerobotic catheter navigation system

Mohammad Ali Tavallaei; Daniel Gelman; Michael Konstantine Lavdas; Allan C Skanes; Douglas L Jones; Jeffrey S Bax; Maria Drangova

doi:10.1002/rcs.1711

Design, development and evaluation of a compact telerobotic catheter navigation system

Int J Med Robot. 2016 Sep;12(3):442-52. doi: 10.1002/rcs.1711. Epub 2015 Nov 3.

Authors

Mohammad Ali Tavallaei^{1

2}, Daniel Gelman^{1

2}, Michael Konstantine Lavdas^{1

3}, Allan C Skanes⁴, Douglas L Jones^{1

5

6}, Jeffrey S Bax⁷, Maria Drangova^{1

2

8}

Affiliations

¹ Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
² Biomedical Engineering Graduate Programme, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
³ Mechatronics Engineering Programme, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
⁵ Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics, London Health Sciences Centre, University Hospital, London, ON, Canada.
⁶ Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
⁷ Centre of Imaging Technology Commercialization (CIMTEC), London, ON, Canada.
⁸ Department of Medical Biophysics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.

PMID: 26525639
DOI: 10.1002/rcs.1711

Abstract

Background: Remote catheter navigation systems protect interventionalists from scattered ionizing radiation. However, these systems typically require specialized catheters and extensive operator training.

Methods: A new compact and sterilizable telerobotic system is described, which allows remote navigation of conventional tip-steerable catheters, with three degrees of freedom, using an interface that takes advantage of the interventionalist's existing dexterity skills. The performance of the system is evaluated ex vivo and in vivo for remote catheter navigation and ablation delivery.

Results: The system has absolute errors of 0.1 ± 0.1 mm and 7 ± 6° over 100 mm of axial motion and 360° of catheter rotation, respectively. In vivo experiments proved the safety of the proposed telerobotic system and demonstrated the feasibility of remote navigation and delivery of ablation.

Conclusion: The proposed telerobotic system allows the interventionalist to use conventional steerable catheters; while maintaining a safe distance from the radiation source, he/she can remotely navigate the catheter and deliver ablation lesions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: catheterization; image-guided intervention; master-slave; medical robotics; telerobotics.

MeSH terms

Animals
Catheter Ablation / instrumentation*
Catheters*
Equipment Design
Male
Robotics / instrumentation*
Swine
Telemedicine / instrumentation*