Needle Deployment with Virtual Treatment and Safety Boundaries
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical treatments for uterine fibroids face challenges in precisely deploying needles, predicting treatment volume, and ensuring safety margins to avoid damage to nearby tissues, particularly for less experienced physicians.
Innovation Solution
The system provides real-time imaging and virtual deployment of needle structures, allowing physicians to project and adjust treatment and safety boundaries on a display before actual deployment, using adjustable stops and sensors to ensure precise positioning and minimize unintended tissue damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If real-time imaging and virtual deployment are used to improve needle placement accuracy, then manufacturing precision and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs virtual needle deployment and treatment boundary projection on the imaging screen before actual needle deployment. This preliminary visualization allows the physician to predict the needle's final position and treatment volume, adjusting the virtual deployment parameters to achieve accurate placement before committing to the actual procedure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a virtual copy of the needle deployment process by projecting the needle's intended path and treatment boundaries onto the real-time ultrasound image. This visual copy allows the physician to assess and adjust the deployment parameters without physically deploying the needle, thereby improving accuracy while managing complexity through software-based simulation.
2Manufacturing precision
If multiple deployment attempts are allowed to achieve proper needle positioning, then productivity decreases due to increased procedure time
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual deployment feature allows the physician to simulate and evaluate multiple potential needle trajectories and positions before actual deployment. By assessing the virtual outcomes in advance, the physician can select the optimal deployment parameters on the first attempt, reducing the need for repeated deployments and improving procedural efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides real-time visual feedback by projecting the predicted treatment boundaries and needle position on the ultrasound image during virtual deployment. This immediate feedback loop allows the physician to adjust deployment parameters and evaluate different approaches without time-consuming trial-and-error physical deployments, thereby improving both accuracy and efficiency.
3Reliability
If larger treatment volumes are targeted to ensure complete fibroid treatment, then harmful factors increase due to potential damage to nearby sensitive tissues
Solution Approach 1:
The system projects the predicted treatment boundaries onto the real-time ultrasound image before actual needle deployment and energy delivery. This preliminary visualization allows the physician to assess whether the treatment volume adequately covers the fibroid while maintaining safe distances from sensitive surrounding tissues, enabling informed decisions about treatment completeness and safety before committing to the procedure.
Solution Approach 2:
The real-time projection of treatment boundaries provides continuous visual feedback during the planning and deployment phases. The physician can adjust needle position, angle, and deployment extent to optimize the treatment volume, ensuring complete fibroid coverage while automatically visualizing the safety margins relative to nearby sensitive structures.
4Ease of operation
If experienced judgment is relied upon to predict treatment volume and safety margins, then ease of operation improves but measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a visual copy of the treatment volume and safety margins by projecting calculated boundaries onto the real-time ultrasound image. This visual representation transforms abstract predictions into concrete, measurable graphics that the physician can directly observe and verify, replacing subjective judgment with objective visual data while maintaining workflow simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces the mechanical/cognitive process of expert judgment with an automated computational system that calculates and displays treatment boundaries based on measured parameters. This substitution provides precise, consistent measurements without requiring years of experience, while the visual display maintains ease of operation by presenting the information in an intuitive format on the existing ultrasound screen.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for deploying needles in tissue includes a controller and a visual display. A treatment probe has both a needle and tines deployable from the needle which may be advanced into the tissue. The treatment probe also has adjustable stops which control the deployed positions of both the needle and the tines. The adjustable stops are coupled to the controller so that the virtual treatment and safety boundaries resulting from the treatment can be presented on the visual display prior to actual deployment of the system.