A Virtual Reality and Haptic Simulator for Ultrasound-Guided Needle Insertion

Abstract

Articular and soft tissue punctions or injections are widely used for the diagnosis and the treatment of rheumatic disorders. Ultrasound is increasingly used to guide these interventions in order to correctly position the needle in the target area, and thereby improve the efficiency and safety of the procedure. During their learning, medical students need to practice in order to master the manipulation of the needle and the ultrasound probe at the same time and acquire enough skills before practicing in a real patient. To offer a risk-free training for apprentices, we present in this paper the design and development of a simulator based on Haptics and Virtual Reality. We described in particular two main aspects of our prototype: (i) the model of forces involved in the needle insertion and their haptic rendering; (ii) the 2D ultrasound image rendering of the virtual environment. Their combination provides the student with a realistic experience. An additional 3D view is also presented, that serves as pedagogical tool useful in the learning process. Experimental validation and preliminary evaluation by the medical partner show that our prototype exhibits sufficient stability and realism for a good immersion in the training scene.

Touch to Learn: A Review of Haptic Technology's Impact on Skill Development and Enhancing Learning Abilities for Children

“…One way is through realistic haptic rendering, which creates real-life-like physical interactions in virtual and augmented reality. [31,36,48,52] This technology blurs the line between the virtual and real worlds, immersing users deeply in simulated tasks. From the point of training scenarios and education, the presence of compelling haptic cues increases the realism of the task, conveying complex and rich information from an unambiguous communication channel.…”

“…[25] Its potential applications span from improving STEM education [26] to simulating high-pressure scenarios in military combat situations. [27][28][29] It is important to note that a substantial body of haptic-assisted training algorithms has been developed and put into practice in medical training and simulators, [30][31][32] as well as in engineering and assembly training. [33]…”

A comprehensive study to learn the impact of augmented reality and haptic interaction in ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsy training and education

“…Current training methods are restricted to manikins, cadavers, and phantoms. However, cadavers are subject to decay and deform once it is used, whereas manikins are limited to use during certain procedures (Alamilla et al 2022). Furthermore, the cadaver tissue properties are certainly different from the real patients.…”

“…Furthermore, the medical training process has witnessed a paradigm shift from traditional training to technologically aided training (Corrêa et al 2019;Lelevé et al 2020;Overtoom et al 2019;Alolayyan et al 2020). Numerous studies have emerged that employ the use of various technologies for medical support and training (Corrêa et al 2019;Ravali and Manivannan 2017;Alamilla et al 2022;Zhao et al 2021;Tang et al 2018;Neves et al 2020). Thus, it is vital to possess an awareness of innovations in technology and their practicality gaining acceptability within the realm of medicine.…”

“…This work is further enhanced by replacing the virtual ultrasound probe with another Touch interface in order to render the interaction forces between the patient and the probe ; the investigators take respiration of the virtual patient into consideration while reproducing real-time haptic feedback. A VR haptic simulator is developed for ultrasound guided needle insertions (Alamilla et al 2022), where the researchers use a Virtuose 6D desktop in the mechanical part of the simulator to replicate the needle and the stylus of the Geomagic Touch representing the ultrasound probe. Using VR, they depict a real-time 3D and 2D view in addition to depicting an ultrasound view of the 3D scene.…”