Vibrotactile force feedback system for minimally invasive surgical procedures

Lack of adequate force feedback for the surgeon in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) can lead to unnecessary trauma to tissue and adverse events during surgery. The successful use of vibrotactile stimulation to augment overloaded or deficient sensory modes in the human operator in other application areas warrants an investigation into its application in MIS. A vibrotactile force feedback system was designed, and its ability to provide useful force information to subjects performing a simulated MIS task was evaluated. Results showed that the system responds as predicted against the bottom surface of the foot, and that subjects were able to perceive a linear increase in force as linear increase in vibration intensity. Furthermore, vibrotacile force information increased one's sensitivity to tissue contact (1.3 N maximum force -no vibration, 1.0 N maximum force-fine step vibration feedback; p<0.001) and improved one's ability to consistently and accurately differentiate tissue softness in a simulated MIS task. Vibrotactile force feedback in MIS appears to have benefits which can lead to a decrease in trauma to tissue and adverse events.

[1]  B. Hannaford,et al.  Computerized endoscopic surgical grasper. , 1998, Studies in health technology and informatics.

[2]  A K Morimoto,et al.  Force sensor for laparoscopic Babcock. , 1997, Studies in health technology and informatics.

[3]  Caroline G. L. Cao,et al.  Effects of Vision and Friction on Haptic Perception , 2006, Hum. Factors.

[4]  E. Targarona,et al.  How, when, and why bile duct injury occurs , 1998, Surgical Endoscopy.

[5]  J Rosen,et al.  Surgeon-tool force/torque signatures--evaluation of surgical skills in minimally invasive surgery. , 1999, Studies in health technology and informatics.

[6]  Christopher D. Wickens,et al.  Multiple resources and performance prediction , 2002 .

[7]  C. E. Chapman,et al.  Perception of vibrotactile stimuli during motor activity in human subjects , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[8]  B. Hannaford,et al.  Force controlled and teleoperated endoscopic grasper for minimally invasive surgery-experimental performance evaluation , 1999, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[9]  Ryan M. Traylor,et al.  A Haptic Back Display for Attentional and Directional Cueing , 2003 .

[10]  G. Picod,et al.  What can the operator actually feel when performing a laparoscopy? , 2003, Surgical Endoscopy And Other Interventional Techniques.

[11]  G. D. Goff.  Differential discrimination of frequency of cutaneous mechanical vibration. , 1967, Journal of experimental psychology.

[12]  Ken Ikeuchi,et al.  An endoscopic tactile sensor for low invasive surgery , 2005 .

[13]  L. M. Ward,et al.  Touch Noise Increases Vibrotactile Sensitivity in Old and Young , 2005, Psychological science.

[14]  Amy E. Kerdok,et al.  Effects of perfusion on the viscoelastic characteristics of liver. , 2006, Journal of biomechanics.

[15]  Andreas Pommert.  Medicine Meets Virtual Reality , 1997 .

[16]  I. Summers.  Tactile Aids for the Hearing Impaired , 1992 .

[17]  D. Oller,et al.  Multisensory narrative tracking by a profoundly deaf subject using an electrocutaneous vocoder and a vibrotactile aid. , 1989, Journal of speech and hearing research.