An Analytical Model for Predicting the Deflection of Hollow Surgical Needle in Soft Tissue

Considerable research efforts have been devoted for studying the interaction between surgical needles and soft tissues which can be used to evaluate the deflection of a bevel-tip needle inside a tissue. The development of an analytical model to predict the steering behavior of the needle during needle-tissue interactions could improve the performance of many percutaneous needle-based procedures. In this study, Euler-Bernoulli beam elastic foundation theory was utilized to model the needle as a cantilever beam moving along its longitudinal axis and undergoing various external loads. The external loads are the result of the interaction between the tissue and the needle during insertion, they can be modeled as a concentrated tissue cutting force acting at the needle bevel, and needle-tissue interaction forces acting along the needle length and tangent to the needle shaft. The accuracy of the analytical predictions offered by the model are verified by comparing them to the experimental data. Due to the assumption of the elastic tissue material, the difference between the analytical model and the experimental results was between 15% to 33%. Current work is ongoing to consider tissue viscoelastic properties to improve the analytical prediction.