Many cancer interventions involve precise placement of needles are performed percutaneously. These include both diagnosis and therapy such as in vivo analysis using optical, raman spectroscopy, chemicals, as well as brachytherapy, photodynamic therapy, RF-based thermal ablation, biopsy, and viral/gene therapy. Another common needle procedure is biopsy. For example, a core needle biopsy technique is commonly used to extract tissue samples.  A sample of tissue is cut and taken from the organ with a needle using an ultrasound guided percutaneous approach and is then assessed for the presence of cancerous cells by histopathological analysis or molecular profiling. Needle steering inside a tissue is dictated by the mechanical interaction of the needle with tissues. The effectiveness of a needle insertion in these procedures is highly dependent on the insertion target accuracy, which is influenced by various factors including the properties of the tissue, and the shape, geometry, properties of the needle. To minimize the target placement errors, a practical approach is to reduce insertion force.  Insect stingers of honeybees, wasps, scorpions, and mosquitos have sophisticated sting mechanics and morphological structures. Insects steer their stingers effortlessly to a specific target and to release their venom in a certain path through the skin. These unique traits inspire the idea to develop bioinspired needles to reduce the insertion forces to decrease the needle path deviation (deflection) for improved targeting accuracy. Mosquito in particular is known for its exceptional penetration mechanism with minimal painless needle called fascicle. Previous researches have also shown that the mosquito proboscis insertion strategy reduces insertion force and decreases tissue damages. One specific aspect of the mechanism is the vibration of the needle during insertion. This paper therefore focuses on the design of mosquito-inspired needle and the evaluation of the needle performance using vibration during tissue insertion. The mosquito-inspired needle design specifically consists of maxilla-shaped and labrum-tip design on the body of the needle. Needle insertion tests in real tissues considering needle geometry design, insertion speed, and vibration conditions were performed. Needle insertion tests were performed in bovine kidney tissues. The insertion force was measured using a force sensor, which was fixed at the needle end to measure the uniaxial force of needles. The needle was inserted at a constant speed by attaching the needle to a motorized linear stage. It was observed that the insertion forces of the proposed needle designs with vibration showed a reduction of insertion force by 27% compared to that of a conventional needle. 


Design and Experimental Evaluation of Mosquito-Inspired Needle Structure in Soft Materials

Division / Sponsors: 
Aerospace, Bioengineering, Applied Mechanics, Design Engineering Division, Advanced Energy Systems, Manufacturing Engineering Division, Noise Control and Acoustics, Nondestructive Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Prognosis (NDPD), Nuclear Engineering Division, Process Industries Division, Fluids Engineering, Heat Transfer, Materials, Microelectromechanical Systems, Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis, Computers & Information in Engineering


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2020/volume/84478

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