Tissue Machining - A Novel Surgical Thermal Management System (STMS)

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The research objective of this award is to apply advanced machining technologies in surgery to control tissue temperature and thermal damage. The approach will be to develop a novel surgical thermal management system with real-time in-situ tissue temperature monitoring and feedback control to minimize the collateral thermal tissue damage in prostatectomy, hysterectomy, and neurosurgery. The system will use temperature sensors placed near structures of interest to provide temperature feedback and maintain a safe thermal dose, thereby avoiding tissue damage. Finite element modeling and inverse heat transfer solutions will be solved to predict the temperature profile in tissues during the prostatectomy and other surgical procedures. These models will serve as the foundation for the control algorithms of the surgical thermal management system. The system will be proven in the ex-vivo model.If successful, this research will minimize thermal damage in surgery and increase the post-operative quality of life for 600,000 women and 167,000 men who annually undergo hysterectomy and prostatectomy procedures in the US, respectively. Thermal damage to neurovascular bundles has been targeted as playing a major role in post-operative incontinence for men and women and impotence for men. This surgical thermal management system will eliminate collateral thermal damage and offer surgeons an increased confidence during surgery. This award also opens a new research area for traditional machining and manufacturing. This project is an important step to foster the future of medical-manufacturing research. The research will also be the cornerstone of a new graduate course: Medical Design and Manufacturing. This research creates a unique collaboration between manufacturing engineering and urology, gynecology, and pediatric surgeons and industrial partners in developing smart surgical devices.