ViSE Researchers Awarded NIH R21 for Steerable Needle Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ICH) Intervention
Recently a team of multidisciplinary ViSE researchers were awarded a R21 NIH grant to develop a system capable of decreasing hematoma size that results from intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). The basic premise of this image-guided surgical system called an active cannula, consists of a series of thin, nested tubes. Each tube has a different intrinsic curvature. By precisely rotating, extending and retracting these tubes, an operator can steer the tip in different directions, allowing it to follow a curving path through the body. By deploying the active cannula through a needle size opening the investigators hope to suction away blood clots formed in ICH while incurring minimal damage to surrounding brain tissue.
The endpoint of this R21 project will be a successful demonstration of the complete system in an animal model which will pave the way for future R01-funded human clinical studies. This project exemplifies the collaborative environment at Vanderbilt and within ViSE, where engineers and surgeons work closely to solve challenging medical problems.
Videos about the project: Decompressing Bleeding in the Brain
Webster’s Medical and Electromechanical Design Laboratory
Read more: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/08/brain-clot-robot/