1. Robotic versus Freehand Needle Positioning in CT-guided Ablation of Liver Tumors: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Heerink WJ et al. Published Online: Jan 22,
The robotic system moves on a rail parallel to the CT table(1). The system is manually maneuvered into place and the device is locked with a pushbutton (2). After automatic orientation, the microwave antenna is clipped in the needle guide (3) and can be inserted to the specified depth.
For CT-guided liver ablation, out of plane targeting errors were 40% lower with robotic guidance versus freehand localization.
For CT-guided microwave ablation, no antenna repositioning was required for the robotic arm while a median of 1 repositioning was required (range:0-7, p<0.001) for the freehand arm.
Longer targeting times for robotic guidance compared to freehand placement (36 mins vs. 19 mins, p=0.001) suggest the need for further optimization of robotic guidance.