Development of a Flexible Tissue Resection Device for Robotic Intracranial Tumour Removal

In recent decades, use of an endoscopic approach to resect intraventricular brain tumours has increased in frequency given the promise of reduced morbidity and shorter recovery times [1]. This trend has partly been facilitated by the introduction of motorized tissue shavers, which use oscillating blades to fragment the tumour while simultaneously removing these fragments via aspiration [2], [3]. Unfortunately, existing shavers possess straight, rigid, shafts. As a result, the shaver must be angled or pivoted to reach the entirety of a tumour, an action that compresses adjacent brain tissue [4]. Thus, endoscopic tumour resection can damage neurological structures and, due to the limits placed on pivot angle, is associated with incomplete tumour resection. To increase a surgeon’s range-of-motion during endoscopic procedures without relying on tool pivoting, curvilinear neurosurgical robots are being developed. Of particular interest, given its small diameter, is the concentric tube robot (CTR) [5]. CTRs consist of pre- curved, super-elastic tubes that are nested concentrically and translated/rotated to control tip pose. However, existing straight, rigid shavers are not CTR-compatible as they would deform the shape of the pre-curved tubes if inserted through them. As such, the objective of this research is to develop a novel tissue shaver that is flexible and thus CTR-compatible.