An MR-Conditional Needle Driver for Robot-Assisted Spinal Injections: Design Modifications and Evaluations

This paper introduces design modifications to our MR-Conditional, 2-degree-of-freedom (DOF), remotely-actuated needle driver for MRI-guided spinal injections. The new needle driver should better meet cleaning and sterilization guidelines needed for regulatory approval, preserve the sterile field during intraoperative needle attachment, and offer better ergonomics and intuitiveness when handling the device. Dy-namic and static force and torque required to properly install the needle driver onto our 4-DOF robot base are analyzed, which provide insight into the risks of intraoperative tool attachment in the setting of robot-assisted spinal injections under MRI guidance.