Pneumatically Operated MRI Robot for Transperineal Prostate Diagnosis and Treatment

MRI has potential to be a superior medical imaging modality for guiding and monitoring prostatic interventions. MRI can provide high-quality 3D visualization of prostate and surrounding tissue. However, the benefits can not be readily harnessed for interventional procedures due to difficulties that surround the use of highfield (1.5T or greater). The strong magnetic field prevents the use of conventional mechatronics and the confined physical space makes it extremely challenging to access the patient. We have designed a robotic assistant system that overcomes these difficulties and promises safe and reliable intra-prostatic needle placement inside closed high-field MRI scanners.

Pneumatic Robot for Prostate Surgery
Pneumatic Robot for Prostate Surgery

We are now developing a piezoelectrically driven version of this system in the AIM Lab in collboration with BWH and JHU.

More information on recent developments of the pneumatic version with our collaborators at Johns Hopkins University can be found on the Computer Integrated Interventional Systems Laboratory's webpage: JHU CIIS Research

Related Publications

  1. Eslami S, Fischer GS, Tokuda J, Iordachita I, Clinically Optimal Design and Development of an MRI-compatible Surgical Manipulator for the Prostate Percutaneous Intervention, 9th InterventionalMRI Symposium (iMRI), Boston, MA, USA, Sept. 2012.
  2. Tokuda J, Song SE, Fischer GS, Iordachita II, Seifabadi R, Cho NB, Tuncali K, Fichtinger G, Tempany CM, Hata N, Preclinical evaluation of an MRI-compatible pneumatic robot for angulated needle placement in transperineal prostate interventions, International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, June 2012. Springer, PubMed, PDF
  3. Su H, Fischer GS, High-field MRI-Compatible Needle Placement Robots for Prostate Interventions: Pneumatic and Piezoelectric Approaches, eds. T. Gulrez and A. Hassanien, Advances in Robotics and Virtual Reality, Springer-Verlag, Intelligent Systems Reference Library, Vol 26, pp 3-32, 2012. Springer, PDF
  4. Song S, Cho NB, Iordachita I, Fischer GS, Hata N, Fichtinger G, Tempany C, Development of a Pneumatic Robot for MRI-guided Transperineal Prostate Intervention, 18th Scientific Meeting and Exhibition of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine - ISMRM 2010, May 2010.
  5. Song S, Cho NB, Fischer GS, Hata N, Tempany C, Fichtinger G, Iordachita I, Development of a Pneumatic Robot for MRI-guided Transperineal Prostate Biopsy and Brachytherapy: New Approaches, International Conference on Robotics and Automation - ICRA 2010, Anchorage, Alaska, May 2010. IEEE, PDF
  6. Fischer GS, Iordachita I, Csoma C, Tokuda J, DiMaio SP, Tempany CM, Hata N, Fichtinger G, MRI-Compatible Pneumatic Robot for Transperineal Prostate Needle Placement, IEEE / ASME Transactions on Mechatronics - Focused section on MRI Compatible Mechatronic Systems, Vol 13, No 3, pp 295-305, June 2008. IEEE, PDF
  7. Fischer GS, Iordachita I, Csoma C, Tokuda J, Mewes PW, Tempany CM, Hata N, Fichtinger G, Pneumatically Operated MRI-Compatible Needle Placement Robot for Prostate Interventions, International Conference on Robotics and Automation - ICRA 2008, Pasadena, CA, pp 2489-2495, May 2008. IEEE, PDF
  8. Fischer GS, Doctoral Dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, Enabling Technologies for MRI Guided Interventional Procedures, 2008 JHU Archive
  9. Fischer GS, Iordachita I, DiMaio SP, Fichtinger G, Development of a Robotic Assistant for Needle-Based Transperineal Prostate Interventions in MRI, 10th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention - MICCAI 2007, Brisbane, Australia, Lecture Notes on Computer Science, Vol 4791, pp 425-433, Springer, November 2007. Springer, PubMed
  10. Fischer GS, DiMaio SP, Iordachita I, Fichtinger G, Robotic Assistant for MR-guided Prostate Biopsy, 6th Interventional MRI Symposium, Leipzig, Germany, September 2006.
  11. Fischer GS, Iordachita I, DiMaio SP, Fichtinger G, Design of a Robot for Transperineal Prostate Needle Placement in an MRI Scanner, IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics - ICM 2006, Budapest, Hungary, July 2006. IEEE
  12. DiMaio SP, Fischer GS, Haker SJ, Hata N, Iordachita I, Tempany CM, Fichtinger G, System for MRI-guided Prostate Interventions, IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics - BioRob 2006, Pisa, Italy, February 2006. IEEE, PDF