Ultrasound-Guided Needle Deployment With Safety Boundary Overlay
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical treatments for uterine fibroids face challenges in precisely deploying needles, predicting treatment volume, and ensuring nearby sensitive tissues are not unintentionally damaged, particularly for less experienced physicians.
Innovation Solution
The system provides real-time visual feedback with projected needle treatment information, including a projected needle path, safety boundary, and therapy region, allowing physicians to align the needle accurately and ensure safety margins, with an interlock mechanism to enable treatment only after confirmation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If real-time visual feedback with projected needle paths and safety boundaries is provided, then needle deployment accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements real-time visual feedback by displaying the actual needle position overlaid with projected needle paths and safety boundaries on an imaging screen. This allows the physician to see the deviation between the actual and projected paths and make immediate adjustments, directly resolving the technical contradiction by improving measurement precision through continuous visual feedback while managing device complexity through software-based overlay graphics.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an imaging system as an intermediary between the needle deployment process and the physician's decision-making. The imaging system captures real-time visual information, processes it to generate overlays showing projected paths and safety boundaries, and presents this information to the physician. This intermediary layer enables accurate needle placement without requiring direct mechanical complexity in the needle deployment mechanism itself.
2Reliability
If the physician relies on experience and judgment to predict treatment volume and safety margins, then device complexity is reduced, but treatment reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calculations of the treatment volume and safety margins before needle deployment by computing projected needle paths and overlaying safety boundaries on the imaging screen. This allows the physician to assess whether the planned treatment will be safe and effective before actually deploying the needle, reducing reliance on experience-based judgment while maintaining manageable device complexity through pre-computed visual aids.
Solution Approach 2:
The imaging system provides real-time feedback during needle deployment by displaying the actual needle position relative to the projected path and safety boundaries. This feedback loop enables the physician to verify that the treatment will be both effective (by confirming adequate treatment volume) and safe (by confirming adequate safety margins), thereby improving treatment reliability without requiring the physician to mentally calculate these parameters from experience.
3Measurement precision
If multiple needle deployment attempts are made to achieve proper positioning, then needle deployment accuracy is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary visualization of the projected needle path and safety boundaries before needle deployment. By allowing the physician to assess the planned trajectory and expected treatment volume in advance, the system enables more accurate first-attempt deployments, thereby reducing the number of retry attempts needed and minimizing time loss while maintaining or improving deployment accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The real-time visual feedback system displays the actual needle position overlaid with the projected path during deployment. This immediate feedback allows the physician to detect and correct deviations from the planned trajectory while the needle is still being deployed, rather than discovering errors after completion. This reduces the need for multiple deployment attempts and minimizes the time lost to redos.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances the precision of needle deployment, reduces the number of deployment attempts, and minimizes damage to sensitive tissues by providing visual guidance and confirmation of safe and effective needle positioning.
Implementation Method 1
a treatment device includes an on-board imaging array with a field of view in a generally lateral direction from an axial shaft
Data Source
AI summary
Needles are deployed in tissue under direct ultrasonic or other imaging. To aid in deploying the needle, a visual needle guide is projected on to the image prior to needle deployment. Once the needle guide is properly aligned, the needle can be deployed. After needle deployment, a safety boundary and treatment region are projected on to the screen. After confirming that the safety boundary and treatment regions are sufficient, the patient can be treated using the needle.