Minimally-invasive intracerebral hemorrhage removal using an active cannula

The high incidence of intracerebral hemorrhages, together with a 40% mortality rate, provide strong motivation for enhancements in the treatment methods available to physicians. To minimize the disruption to healthy brain tissue associated with gaining access to the surgical site that is imposed by traditional open or endoscopic surgical intervention, we propose a new minimally-invasive, image-guided, robotic approach that provides articulation within the lesion at the tip of a needle. In this paper we present a biocompatible and sterilizable robot, together with an image-guidance approach designed to deliver the tip of the needle accurately to the blood clot and to move it within the clot, to aspirate it. An experimental evaluation demonstrates removal of 92% of the target clot tissue in a proof-of-concept phantom study.