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TherVoyant: Compact guide for minimally invasive surgery in an MRI scanner

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Provides precise trajectories for minimally invasive brain surgery under MR guidance.

Design Award

  • Tong Biomedical Design Award Honorable Mention

News About this Project

Project Overview

Surgeons are increasingly selecting minimally invasive surgery (MIS) procedures, due to better patient recovery, improved outcomes, and reduced operation time. A typical MIS procedure involves placing a thin catheter or needle at a precise location in the body. Image guidance is thus becoming more important, as more invasive and delicate procedures are performed. For some types of surgery, particularly brain surgery, MRI is the preferred modality to provide optimal targeting information.

One of the major problems in MIS brain surgery is to accurately and rapidly drill a hole in the skull and then place a catheter through the hole to a specific location. Current hardware guides can be accurate but are very time-consuming to use, limiting their appeal and usage. Furthermore, current guides tend to be relatively large, limiting the possible positions within the MRI scanner and MRI head coil.
This project will design and create a working model for a MIS guide that balances efficiency with accuracy. The students will be working with Neurosurgeon, Dr. Azam Ahmed, who is keenly interested in developing viable hardware and software solutions to advance his field.

Team Picture

Team members from left to right: Bailey Ramesh, Zach Hite, Molly De Mars, and Caitlin Randell
Team members from left to right: Bailey Ramesh, Zach Hite, Molly De Mars, and Caitlin Randell

Contact Information

Team Members

  • Zachary Hite - Team Leader
  • Caitlin Randell - Communicator
  • Molly De Mars - BSAC & BPAG
  • Bailey Ramesh - BWIG

Advisor and Client

  • Prof. Beth Meyerand - Advisor
  • Dr. Terrence Oakes - Client
  • Prof. Walter Block - Alternate Contact

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