Interactive Simulation of Surgical Needle Insertion and Steering

We present algorithms for simulating and visualizing the insertion and steering of needles throughdeformable tissues for surgical training and planning. Needle insertion is an essential component ofmany clinical procedures such as biopsies, injections, neurosurgery, and brachytherapy cancer treatment.The success of these procedures depends on accurate guidance of the needle tip to a clinicaltarget while avoiding vital tissues. Needle insertion deforms body tissues, making accurate placementdifficult. Our interactive needle insertion simulator models the coupling between a flexibleneedle and deformable tissue. We introduce (1) a novel algorithm for local remeshing that quicklyenforces the conformity of a tetrahedral mesh to a curvilinear needle path, enabling accurate computationof contact forces, (2) an efficient method for coupling a 3D finite element simulation with a1D inextensible rod with stick-slip friction, and (3) optimizations that reduce the computation timefor physically based simulations. We can realistically and interactively simulate needle insertioninto a prostate mesh of 13,375 tetrahedra and 2,763 vertices at a 25 Hz frame rate on an 8-core 3.0GHz Intel Xeon PC. The simulation models prostate brachytherapy with needles of varying stiffness,steering needles around obstacles, and supports motion planning for robotic needle insertion.We evaluate the accuracy of the simulation by comparing against real-world experiments in whichflexible, steerable needles were inserted into gel tissue phantoms.