PhD defense : Robot-Assisted Bone Cement Injection

PhD defense : Nicole LEPOUTRE

Team : AVR

Title : Robot-Assisted Bone Cement Injection

Abstract : Percutaneous vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive intervention that involves injecting acrylic or calcium phosphate cement, under fluoroscopic guidance, into the vertebral body of the patient. It presents the dual purpose of consolidating the fractured vertebra, mostly due to osteoporosis, a trauma or the presence of bone metastases, and reducing significantly pain. Despite these significant advantages from the patient's perspective, some inconveniences must be considered. The major difficulties are directly related to the orthopedic bone cement that is injected during its curing phase. Indeed, the radiopaque cement is very liquid at the beginning of the injection, which introduces a high risk of leakage outside the damaged vertebra and, thus, potential dramatic complications for the patient. In addition, during the injection, the chemical reaction progresses and the bone cement hardens suddenly, which leaves a short working phase (about ten minutes) to the physician. Last but not least, the operator is permanently exposed to harmful X-rays. In this context of an unconventional behavior, this work aims to provide a new teleoperated injection device with haptic feedback that has been designed to allow a fine supervision of the cement injection, eventually at high pressures, by including among other a viscosity control system. The developed device will allow the radioprotection of the medical staff, a reduction of the leakage risks and an extended injection phase.

The presentation will take place at IRCAD auditorium Hirsch on Wednesday, December 7th 2016 at 10.30 am.