Water-jet Steerable Needles

Poster entitled "Water-jet Steerable Needles" presented at 2018 GPSA research exposition.Water-jet technology has been used extensively for decades industrially for many applications including mining, plastic, metal, stone, wood, and produce cutting. The use of water-jet in medical applications has been developed more recently and it is used for different applications such as soft tissue resection, bone cutting, wound debridement, and surgery [1]. Decreasing the insertion force is important in medical applications since high insertion forces can complicate reaching the intended target with high accuracy. Research shows that lower insertion force can reduce needle bending and tissue deflection [2]. It can also reduce the pain felt by the patient during procedure [3]. Therefore, researchers have actively researched ways to reduce the insertion forces. Methods proposed in the literature to reduce the insertion forces include changing needle geometry, using smaller needles, and inserting the needle with different insertion speeds and/or vibration. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that water-jet is incorporated into traditional needles and insertion forces are measured