Precision enhancement of epidural force-sensing needle with machine learning

Epidural injection is used in pain intervention, requiring precise needle placement within the epidural space. Traditional techniques, such as loss of resistance and fluoroscopy-guided procedures, have limitations, including reliance on subjective assessment and radiation exposure. We proposed an optical force-sensing probe with an offset criterion of the needle tip-distal end to enhance the precision of puncture detection. The offset between the needle tip and the force-sensing probe is adjusted using a piezoelectric motor-based system with feedback position control. A Long Short-Term Memory model is also trained to detect the puncture. Insertion test on silicone phantom and ex-vivo specimens demonstrates that the system’s offset range for enhancing precision of puncture detection is between 0.6 mm and 1 mm. Compared to the offset in the previous study, the AUC score of puncture detection increased from 0.61 to 0.86. This approach secures the improvement of puncture detection reliability in robot-assisted epidural injection.