A review of endovascular catheterization technologies
Recently, a great review was published by Imperial College people on the robot-assisted endovascular catheterization technologies recently developed.
"Endovascular techniques have been embraced as a minimally-invasive
treatment approach within different disciplines of interventional
radiology and cardiology. The current practice of endovascular
procedures, however, is limited by a number of factors including
exposure to high doses of X-ray radiation, limited 3D imaging, and lack
of contact force sensing from the endovascular tools and the vascular
anatomy. More recently, advances in steerable catheters and development
of master/slave robots have aimed to improve these practices by removing
the operator from the radiation source and increasing the precision and
stability of catheter motion with added degrees-of-freedom. Despite
their increased application and a growing research interest in this
area, many such systems have been designed without considering the
natural manipulation skills and ergonomic preferences of the operators.
Existing studies on tool interactions and natural manipulation skills of
the operators are limited. In this manuscript, new technical
developments in different aspects of robotic endovascular intervention
including catheter instrumentation, intra-operative imaging and
navigation techniques, as well as master/slave based robotic
catheterization platforms are reviewed. We further address emerging
trends and new research opportunities towards more widespread clinical
acceptance of robotically assisted endovascular technologies."
Image credit: Imperial College
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