Total Force Analysis and Safety Enhancing for Operating Both Guidewire and Catheter in Endovascular Surgery

In vascular interventional surgery (VIS), the doctors often need to be exposed to X-ray radiation for a long time, operate surgical instruments (Ex. Guidewires and catheters) to perform the operation, which is difficult to ensure the health of surgeons and the safety of operation. In addition, the force between the blood vessel wall and the surgical instrument is complex and variable, the existence of the external disturbance forces easily affects the judgment of the doctors. In this paper, to ensure the health and reduce the fatigue of the doctors, a novel tactile sensing robot-assisted system for VIS was developed to assist the surgeons to complete the operation. Then, the forces between the blood vessel and the surgical instrument during the surgery were analyzed. Besides, a self-developed force sensor was used to confirm the collision force between the tip of the catheter and the blood vessel wall. Finally, combining the haptic force feedback of the system and the developed force sensor, a series of experiments in “Vitro” were completed, and it was indicated by the experiment results that the accuracy of the force feedback can be improved by using the analysis method proposed in this paper, the collision force between the catheter tip and the blood vessel environment can be confirmed by the self-developed force sensor. Based on the results, the developed robot-assisted system for VIS has high safety.