AUTOMATIC LASER INTERSTITIAL THERMAL THERAPY FOR ROBOT-ASSISTED SURGERY

ABSTRACT

The performance of the minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is enhanced by new Robotic surgical assistants (RSAs) because of the many advantages including small incisions, decreased blood loss, less pain, quicker heating time and the ability to pinpoint locations very precisely.

In order to maximize therapeutic effects of the LITT (Laser interstitial thermal therapy) while minimizing side effects, thermal sensors need to be installed at the border between healthy and tumorous tissues. These thermal switches will send a signal to stop the heat process as soon as the temperature is exceeding a trigger. A mathematical formulation and a procedure is proposed that will help the physician prioritize the dosimetry locations and provide a safe dose per location.  Such procedure which define the laser power distribution and the ablation position can be used for robot-assisted surgery. Such smart procedure will use a tissue damage prediction tool and bang-bang switch at the edges between healthy and unhealthy tissue to prevent side effect (laser ablation of the healthy tissue).

We used a system on chip to control the robotic arm and laser led in order to proceed with the automatic LITT procedure.