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

该奖项的研究目标是将先进的加工技术应用于外科手术，以控制组织温度和热损伤。该方法将开发一种新型的外科热管理系统，具有实时原位组织温度监测和反馈控制，以最大限度地减少子宫切除术，子宫切除术和神经外科手术中的附带热组织损伤。该系统将使用放置在感兴趣结构附近的温度传感器来提供温度反馈并保持安全的热剂量，从而避免组织损伤。将求解有限元建模和逆热传递解，以预测直肠切除术和其他外科手术期间组织中的温度分布。这些模型将作为手术热管理系统的控制算法的基础。 该系统将在离体模型中得到验证。如果成功，这项研究将最大限度地减少手术中的热损伤，并提高美国每年分别接受子宫切除术和子宫切除术的60万名女性和16.7万名男性的术后生活质量。神经血管束的热损伤被认为是男性和女性术后尿失禁以及男性阳痿的主要原因。 这种外科热管理系统将消除附带的热损伤，并在手术过程中为外科医生提供更大的信心。 该奖项也为传统机械加工和制造开辟了一个新的研究领域。 该项目是促进医疗制造研究未来的重要一步。 这项研究也将成为一个新的研究生课程的基石：医疗设计和制造。这项研究创造了制造工程与泌尿科、妇科和儿科外科医生以及工业合作伙伴在开发智能手术设备方面的独特合作。

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.