PURPOSE The high contrast resolution and absent ionizing radiation of interventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be advantageous for paravertebral sympathetic nerve plexus injections. We assessed the feasibility and technical performance of MRI-guided paravertebral sympathetic injections utilizing augmented reality navigation and 1.5 T MRI scanner. METHODS A total of 23 bilateral inj...

BACKGROUND Difficulty advancing epidural catheters is troublesome to obstetric anesthesiologists. Flexible epidural catheters have been shown to reduce paresthesiae and intravascular catheter placement in parturients, but the cause of inability to advance these catheters past the epidural needle tip remains undefined. Specifically, its incidence and effective management strategies have not been...

Many different robotic systems have been developed for invasive medical procedures. In this article we will focus on robotic systems for image-guided interventions such as biopsy of suspicious lesions, interstitial tumor treatment, or needle placement for spinal blocks and neurolysis. Medical robotics is a young and evolving field and the ultimate role of these systems has yet to be determined....

Serious complications following cervical epidural steroid injection are rare. Subdural injection of local anesthetic and steroid represents a rare but potentially life threatening complication. A patient presented with left sided cervical pain radiating into the left upper extremity with motor deficit. MRI showed absent lordosis with a broad left paramedian disc-osteophyte complex impinging the...

We introduce a 15 cm, 26-gauge spinal needle (Steriseal Ltd, Redditch) through a standard Tuohy needle (9·6 cm, 16-gauge) which has its tip in the epidural space. Once the dura has been punctured the spinal needle is only really held in place by the dura. It is therefore quite difficult to attach the syringe of local anaesthetic and then inject without inadvertently placing the tip of the spina...

OBJECTIVE To compare the frequency and severity of post dural puncture headache in obstetric patients using 25G Quincke, 27G Quincke and 27G Whitacre spinal needles. DESIGN Comparative, randomized, double-blind, interventional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad from October 2005 to December 2006. PATIENTS AND METHODS 480 ASA I-II full term pregnant wo...

A technique for transperineal high-dose-rate (HDR) prostate brachytherapy and needle biopsy in a standard 1.5 T MRI scanner is demonstrated. In each of eight procedures (in four patients with intermediate to high risk localized prostate cancer), four MRI-guided transperineal prostate biopsies were obtained followed by placement of 14-15 hollow transperineal catheters for HDR brachytherapy. Mean...

This paper presents a concept of automatic needle placement for brachytherapy. For the success of this minimally invasive treatment, a precise and safe placement of needles inside soft tissue is fundamental. The presented concept incorporates information about the needle as well as the tissue to find a suitable needle trajectory. A patientspecific tissue model is derived from different imaging ...

Computed tomography (CT) guided needle placement is an established practice in the medical field. The efficacy of these procedures is related to the accuracy of needle placement. Current free-hand techniques have limitations in accuracy, which is often affected by the patient motion. In response to these problems and as a testbed for future developments, we propose a robotically assisted needle...

OBJECTIVE To compare the accuracy rates of non-guided vs. ultrasound-guided needle placement in four lower limb muscles (tibialis posterior, peroneus longus, and short and long heads of the biceps femoris). METHODS Two electromyographers examined the four muscles in each of eight lower limbs from four fresh frozen cadavers. Each electromyographer injected an assigned dye into each targeted mu...