Computer-aided medical technologies are currently restricted by the limited understanding of the mechanical response of solid abdominal organs to finite loading conditions typical of surgical manipulation [5]. This limitation is a result of the difficulty in acquiring the necessary data on whole organs. To develop a constitutive model capable of predicting complex surgical scenarios, multiple testing modalities need to be simultaneously obtained to capture the fundamental nature of the tissue’s behavior under such conditions. In vivo tests are essential to obtain a realistic response, but their inherent difficulty and unknown boundary conditions makes them an impractical approach. Ex vivo tests are easy to control, but the response is unrealistic. A perfusion apparatus was previously developed that obtained near in vivo conditions for whole livers while allowing the ease of ex vivo testing [3]. This work presents the results from complete viscoelastic testing of whole-perfused livers with surgically relevant time-dependant indentation loading profiles to 35% nominal strain. These results will aid in the development of a constitutive model for the liver whose parameters can be related to the physical constituents of the tissue. As an intermediate modeling step, a 1D rheological modeling tool was used to identify the form and initial parameters for a constitutive model.

We are constantly inhaling and exhaling solid and liquid particles that are present all around us in the atmosphere. Medicines used to treat pulmonary diseases are also often nebulized, and administered as inhaled particles. Research has shown that only 10 to 20 per cent of the inhaled drugs reaches the lungs. Another study has shown that there is a high correlation between regions with high concentration of deposited particles and bronchial carcinoma origin sites. Studying how particles are transported and deposited in the airways can help in improving drug delivery and targeted therapy of pulmonary diseases. Therefore, numerous researchers have studied particle deposition in the lungs using experiments and computer-aided numerical simulations.

The selection of a tracking system for locating patient anatomy and/or surgical tools is of critical importance for many computer aided techniques in minimally invasive surgery. A mechanical tracking system has many advantages in a medical situation since it avoids the occlusion and distortion issues of optical and electromagnetic systems. However, few mechanical tracking systems exist due to the challenges of minimizing error accumulation along a serial linkage. To minimize error, the existing mechanical tracking linkages are large and bulky, making them impractical for a surgical setting.

Lower extremity deformity can cause joint pain and malfunction. Patients with severe deformity usually need a correction surgery or total knee replacement (TKR) surgery to realign the orientation of the femur and tibia. Lower extremity deformity needs to be accurately assessed before any clinical decision can be made. In practice, physicians and radiologists rely mainly on X-ray images to evaluate the deformity, and CT is used in complex cases only. Manual assessment on X-rays is tedious, time consuming and inaccurate [1]. Computer aided diagnosis was proved efficient to understand patients’ anatomy, analyze lower limb deformity and plan the possible surgery [2]. However, notable interactive works were required during the identification of the anatomic features, and the accuracy was unguaranteed when the physician is not familiar with the diagnosis software. In this study we developed an automatic assessment system to identify patients’ anatomic features and quantify lower extremity deformity.

Recently, computer-aided robotic systems, such as Robodoc ® system and Makoplasty ® system, have been used to enable surgeons to improve the accuracy of cutting and alignment in knee and hip arthroplasty [1,2,3]. The incision is normally done at the anterior part of the knee and the cutting is performed from the frontal direction during the TKA because enough working space of the tools is required during cutting process. Currently minimal invasive surgery (MIS) is the most popular keyword in the arthroplasty [4], and at this moment the MIS could not be performed common in the TKA using the robotic system. This MIS TKA could be achieved in lateral direction, and different cutting process also changes the robot configuration, which mainly affect the system accuracy. In this study, we investigated what additional advantages could be achieved in the bone cutting process laterally using laboratory-level less-invasive TKA surgical robot system.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may become a new foundation for early stage cancer diagnosis requiring minimal patient effort [1]. This approach can overcome the limitations of current diagnostic technologies, including computer-aided tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-ray mammography, and ultrasound (UR) which can detect only highly calcified tumors at relatively high cost. Several studies have demonstrated CTC capture using microfluidic devices to identify the presence of human breast cancer, and the CellSearch™ immunomagnetic system (Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ) is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for monitoring post-treatment therapy, but all of the systems reported have either a long diagnosis time or unacceptable capture rates [2, 3]. CTCs in human peripheral blood are very rare events, typically 1 ∼ 2 CTCs in 1 mL of circulating blood. This low concentration of CTCs requires a large sample volume (∼7.5 mL) to ensure detection. However, current affinity-based microfluidic devices for cell capture usually operate at very low flow rates to increase the capture rate. Therefore, developing high flow rate microfluidic devices for CTC capture is essential and challenging. A new concept of high flow rate device is introduced, simulated, and tested at high flow rates.