Towards robot guided waterjet surgery

Papachristou and Bartes [1] first used a waterjet in the medical context. By using a waterjet in ablative liver surgery intrahepatic parenchyma could be washed away whereas vessels and ducts stay undamaged and intact which leads to less interoperative loss of blood. The aspect of tissue selectivity is one of the major advantages of using a waterjet to prepare soft tissue. This work first explains the physical basics of this method and differs between relevant properties which are responsible for the cutting effect. From that, the method of handling a waterjet applicator is derived. Furthermore, the restrictions of handling a waterjet applicator in laparoscopic surgery are shown and a robot supported solution for this problem is suggested. Finally, first experiments of the robotic solution using gelatin samples are presented and discussed.