ViSE affiliates restore surgeon’s sense of touch during minimally invasive surgery
During open surgery doctors rely on their sense of touch to identify the edges of hidden tumors and to locate hidden blood vessels and other anatomical structures: a procedure they call palpation. But this practice is not possible in minimally invasive surgery where surgeons work with small, specialized tools and miniature cameras that fit through small incisions in a patient’s skin.
In order to provide the benefits of palpation to minimally invasive surgery, a team of engineers and doctors at Vanderbilt University headed by Pietro Valdastri, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and medicine, has designed a special-purpose wireless capsule equipped with a pressure sensor that fits through the small ports that surgeons use for what is also called “keyhole” surgery. The system is described in an article in press at the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.
Read more: Restore sense of touch during surgery