Modern operations that remove the part of the brain responsible for epileptic seizures are extremely invasive and require doctors to drill through the skull, but a new robotic technique could allow this brain area (the hippocampus) to be accessed through the cheek.
In order to accomplish this, a research team developed a shape-memory alloy needle that can be easily steered as well as a robot that can operate within an MRI scanner's magnetic field, Vanderbilt University reported.
Researchers have now revealed a working prototype boasting a 1.14 mm nickel-titanium needle with curved tubes, allowing it to follow the path to the brain. The needle is steered using compressed air, which inches it along one millimeter at a time.
Much of the system could be made through 3-D printing, making it relatively inexpensive to manufacture. The new innovation could be used in operation rooms within the next 10 years, but the next steps are to test the method on cadavers. The method was originally established through existing technology.
"I've done a lot of work in my career on the control of pneumatic systems," said Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Eric Barth. "We knew we had this ability to have a robot in the MRI scanner, doing something in a way that other robots could not. Then we thought, 'What can we do that would have the highest impact?'"
The team decided epilepsy surgery would most likely be a high-impact application for the new innovation since the invasiveness of current procedures often comes with significant risks and long recovery times.
"The systems we have now that let us introduce probes into the brain -- they deal with straight lines and are only manually guided," said Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery Joseph Neimat. "To have a system with a curved needle and unlimited access would make surgeries minimally invasive. We could do a dramatic surgery with nothing more than a needle stick to the cheek."
