Evaluation of the Needle Positioning Accuracy of a Light Puncture Robot Under MRI Guidance: Results of a Clinical Trial on Healthy Volunteers.

PURPOSE: To assess the accuracy of Light Puncture Robot (LPR) as a patient-mounted robot, in positioning a sham needle under MRI guidance for abdominal percutaneous interventions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This monocentric, prospective and non-controlled study was approved by the ethics review board. The study evaluated the accuracy of LPR V3 to achieve a virtual puncture in 20 healthy volunteers. Three trajectories were tried on each volunteer, under 3-T MRI guidance. RESULTS: Accuracy under 5 mm in attaining a 10 cm-deep target was reached in 72% of attempts after 2 robot motions with a median error of 4.1 mm [2.1; 5.1]. Median procedure time for one trajectory was 12.9 min [10.2; 18.0] and median installation time was 9.0 min [6.0; 13.0]. CONCLUSION: LPR accuracy in the deployment of a sham needle inside the MRI tunnel and its setup time are promising. Further studies need to be conducted to confirm these results before clinical trials.