Robot-assisted optical ultrasound imaging for endoscopic transsphenoidal pituitary adenoma surgery
Project ID: 2228cd1315 (You will need this ID for your application)
Under Offer
Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering
Lead Supervisor: Erwin Alles
Project Summary:
The pituitary gland produces many of the hormones required for the normal functioning of the human body. Whilst pituitary adenoma tumours are usually benign (non-cancerous), larger adenoma can result is blindness, and functioning adenoma can result in hormone excess, leading to permanent changes in bodily structure and function, and even death. The gold standard treatment for most symptomatic pituitary adenoma is surgery. Ideally a minimally invasive approach is employed, where access to the pituitary gland is gained through the nose and sphenoid paranasal sinus (“transsphenoidal”) to manipulate tissue using rigid instruments under endoscopic guidance. However, one in five patients present residual disease post-surgery, a statistic that remained stubbornly static over 20 years.
Recently, the supervisory team have developed an optical ultrasound (OpUS) imaging probe that offers real-time, sub-surface imaging in a sub-mm form factor that is well-suited to integration into interventional instruments. In parallel, a handheld robotic interventional instrument was developed that allows for greater instrument articulation and surgeon dexterity whilst providing a versatile instrument channel to deliver surgical instruments.
In this project, these two inventions are combined to provide sub-surface imaging directly from the robotic tool, in a bid to significantly improve image guidance during transsphenoidal pituitary adenoma surgery. This will enable visualisation of sub-surface tumour margins as well as blood vessels, and ultimately result in significantly improved patient outcomes and reduced rates of complications or repeat procedures. To this aim, novel OpUS imaging probes will be developed, optimised and characterised, and their safety assessed through thermal imaging and cytotoxic studies. These probes will be integrated with the robotic interventional instrument, and their 3D imaging capabilities will be demonstrated in ex vivo tissue samples and phantoms.