MRI-Compatible Robots to Cure Epilepsy
Today, epilepsy patients face a lifetime of drugs with serious side effects, and some are never able to control their seizures. About 1 in 10 will die suddenly for unexplained reasons, but undoubtedly connected to their epilepsy.
For patients for whom no drugs work, surgeons have a solution that actually cures epilepsy. In many patients seizures originate from a structure deep inside the brain called the hippocampus. Surgical removal can totally eliminate seizures for the majority of patients!
But many patients opt not to get this surgery, because they (understandably) do not want their skull to be opened up and surgery to be performed in the middle of their brain.
We are working on an alternate way to de-activate the problematic cells that kick-start the electrical storm that causes a seizure.
We insert a thin laser fiber into the hippocampus and use it to apply heat, de-activating the cells. We monitor the location and magnitude of the heat as it diffuses into the brain using MRI imaging, which can make 3D temperature maps.
This requires us to make our robots “MRI conditional” which means that they do not affect the imaging, and the imaging does not affect them. We do this by making them pneumatically actuated and made entirely out of plastic. One way we have accomplished this is by 3D printing our robots.
Selected Related Publications:
D. B. Comber, J.E. Slightam, V. R. Gervasi, J. S. Neimat, E. J. Barth, and R. J. Webster III. Design, Additive Manufacture, and Control of a Pneumatic MR-Compatible Needle Driver. IEEE Transactions on Robotics. 2016;32(1):138-149. doi:10.1109/TRO.2015.2504981
J. Granna, E. B. Pitt, M. E. McKay, T. J. Ball, J. S. Neimat, D. J. Englot, R. P. Naftel, E. J. Barth, and R. J. Webster III. Targeting Epilepsy Through the Foremen Ovale: How Many Helical Needles are Needed? Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 50(5):499-506, 2022.
D. B. Comber, E. B. Pitt, H. B. Gilbert, M. W. Powelson, E. Matijevich, J. S. Neimat, R. J. Webster III, and E. J. Barth. Optimization of Curvilinear Needle Trajectories for Transforamenal Hippocampotomy. Operative Neurosurgery, 13(1):15-22, 2017.
A. M. Grillo, J. E. Peters, D. S. Esser, S. J. Garrow, T. Ball, R. Naftel, D. J. Englot, J. Neimat, W. A. Grissom, E. J. Barth, and R. J. Webster, III, “Design Considerations for Robotic, MRI-Guided, Trans-Foramen Ovale Access to the Brain,” In Medical Imaging 2023: Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling, vol. 12466, SPIE, 2023.
J. E. Peters, A. M. Grillo, D. S. Esser, S. J. Garrow, N. S. Kumar, T. Ball, R. Naftel, D. J. Englot, J. Neimat, W. A. Grissom, and R. J. Wester III, “A Highly Compact, Multi-Material, Fluid Powered Actuation System for MRI-Guided Surgical Intervention,” Fluid Power Systems Technology, 87431. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2023.