13 research outputs found
Automating Vascular Shunt Insertion with the dVRK Surgical Robot
Vascular shunt insertion is a fundamental surgical procedure used to
temporarily restore blood flow to tissues. It is often performed in the field
after major trauma. We formulate a problem of automated vascular shunt
insertion and propose a pipeline to perform Automated Vascular Shunt Insertion
(AVSI) using a da Vinci Research Kit. The pipeline uses a learned visual model
to estimate the locus of the vessel rim, plans a grasp on the rim, and moves to
grasp at that point. The first robot gripper then pulls the rim to stretch open
the vessel with a dilation motion. The second robot gripper then proceeds to
insert a shunt into the vessel phantom (a model of the blood vessel) with a
chamfer tilt followed by a screw motion. Results suggest that AVSI achieves a
high success rate even with tight tolerances and varying vessel orientations up
to 30{\deg}. Supplementary material, dataset, videos, and visualizations can be
found at https://sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/autolab-avsi
Superhuman Surgical Peg Transfer Using Depth-Sensing and Deep Recurrent Neural Networks
We consider the automation of the well-known peg-transfer task from the
Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS). While human surgeons teleoperate
robots to perform this task with great dexterity, it remains challenging to
automate. We present an approach that leverages emerging innovations in depth
sensing, deep learning, and Peiper's method for computing inverse kinematics
with time-minimized joint motion. We use the da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK)
surgical robot with a Zivid depth sensor, and automate three variants of the
peg-transfer task: unilateral, bilateral without handovers, and bilateral with
handovers. We use 3D-printed fiducial markers with depth sensing and a deep
recurrent neural network to improve the precision of the dVRK to less than 1
mm. We report experimental results for 1800 block transfer trials. Results
suggest that the fully automated system can outperform an experienced human
surgical resident, who performs far better than untrained humans, in terms of
both speed and success rate. For the most difficult variant of peg transfer
(with handovers) we compare the performance of the surgical resident with
performance of the automated system over 120 trials for each. The experienced
surgical resident achieves success rate 93.2 % with mean transfer time of 8.6
seconds. The automated system achieves success rate 94.1 % with mean transfer
time of 8.1 seconds. To our knowledge this is the first fully automated system
to achieve "superhuman" performance in both speed and success on peg transfer.
Supplementary material is available at
https://sites.google.com/view/surgicalpegtransfer
Challenges in surgical video annotation
Annotation of surgical video is important for establishing ground truth in surgical data science endeavors that involve computer vision. With the growth of the field over the last decade, several challenges have been identified in annotating spatial, temporal, and clinical elements of surgical video as well as challenges in selecting annotators. In reviewing current challenges, we provide suggestions on opportunities for improvement and possible next steps to enable translation of surgical data science efforts in surgical video analysis to clinical research and practice
Self-Supervised Learning for Interactive Perception of Surgical Thread for Autonomous Suture Tail-Shortening
Accurate 3D sensing of suturing thread is a challenging problem in automated
surgical suturing because of the high state-space complexity, thinness and
deformability of the thread, and possibility of occlusion by the grippers and
tissue. In this work we present a method for tracking surgical thread in 3D
which is robust to occlusions and complex thread configurations, and apply it
to autonomously perform the surgical suture "tail-shortening" task: pulling
thread through tissue until a desired "tail" length remains exposed. The method
utilizes a learned 2D surgical thread detection network to segment suturing
thread in RGB images. It then identifies the thread path in 2D and reconstructs
the thread in 3D as a NURBS spline by triangulating the detections from two
stereo cameras. Once a 3D thread model is initialized, the method tracks the
thread across subsequent frames. Experiments suggest the method achieves a 1.33
pixel average reprojection error on challenging single-frame 3D thread
reconstructions, and an 0.84 pixel average reprojection error on two tracking
sequences. On the tail-shortening task, it accomplishes a 90% success rate
across 20 trials. Supplemental materials are available at
https://sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/autolab-surgical-thread/ .Comment: International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)
2023, 7 page
European guidelines on management of restless legs syndrome: report of a joint task force by the European Federation of Neurological Societies, the European Neurological Society and the European Sleep Research Society
Background: Since the publication of the first European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) guidelines in 2005 on the management of restless legs syndrome (RLS; also known as Willis-Ekbom disease), there have been major therapeutic advances in the field. Furthermore, the management of RLS is now a part of routine neurological practice in Europe. New drugs have also become available, and further randomized controlled trials have been undertaken. These guidelines were undertaken by the EFNS in collaboration with the European Neurological Society and the European Sleep Research Society. Objectives: To provide an evidence-based update of new treatments published since 2005 for the management of RLS. Methods: First, we determined what the objectives of management of primary and secondary RLS should be. We developed the search strategy and conducted a review of the scientific literature up to 31 December 2011 (print and electronic publications) for the drug classes and interventions employed in RLS treatment. Previous guidelines were consulted. All trials were analysed according to class of evidence, and recommendations made according to the 2004 EFNS criteria for rating. Recommendations: Level A recommendations can be made for rotigotine, ropinirole, pramipexole, gabapentin enacarbil, gabapentin and pregabalin, which are all considered effective for the short-term treatment for RLS. However, for the long-term treatment for RLS, rotigotine is considered effective, gabapentin enacarbil is probably effective, and ropinirole, pramipexole and gabapentin are considered possibly effective. Cabergoline has according to our criteria a level A recommendation, but the taskforce cannot recommend this drug because of its serious adverse events. © 2012 EFNS.Markku Partinen has received honoraria for consulting, advisory boards or lectures from Boehringer Ingelheim, Cephalon, GlaxoSmithKline, UCB Pharma, Leiras, Sanofi-Aventis, Orion, Servier, MSD, and Cephalon. He has received a grant from the Academy of Finland.Peer Reviewe