A Flat-Panel Ultrasound Robot to Align an Abdominal Ultrasound Probe During Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy

There were over 28.000 kidney tumor incidences in Germany in 2010. Minimally invasive (laparoscopic) removal of these tumors has become more and more popular. Intraoperative imaging during these procedures is mainly performed with videolaparoscopes. However, they provide only superficial images of the operating field increasing the challenge to remove the tumor. Conventional sonographic approaches may overcome this problem but require an additional assistant to guide the probe. To eliminate the need for an additional assistant, we developed a new robot with four degrees of freedom to motorize a sonographic probe. The robot can be installed in the operating room table and is directly controlled by the surgeon with telemanipulation. In experiments we showed that the accuracy of the kinematic is above the resolution of the sonographic probe.