Development of haptic triaxial stress sensor system for tracking deflected blood vessels during vascular puncture

抄録

Blood vessel puncture is commonly performed in the medical field. To perform safe and smooth puncture, a sensing method that detects the puncture into the blood vessel wall is necessary, and it is important for training of puncture techniques. One problem with puncturing a blood vessel is that the vessel may deflect from the needle tip. Therefore, it is necessary to feel the deflected blood vessels with your fingertips and correct the puncture direction. Currently, we are developing a blood collection support system that can detect needle penetration into a blood vessel wall using a flexible tactile three-axis stress sensor that can simultaneously measure contact pressure and shear stress. This sensor can measure the peak of shear stress at the fingertip, which corresponds to the change in puncture force when penetrating the blood vessel wall. However, since there is only one measurement point, it was difficult to evaluate the tactile sensation of the stress distribution in the grip finger. In order to detect deflected blood vessels, multiple sensors must be placed on the fingertip. In this study, a sensor with three measurement points was developed to identify the deflection and displacement direction of blood vessel. The puncture experiment used a forearm model for puncture training and a winged needle. The sensor was attached to the thumb pad. As a result, by measuring the stress distribution when the blood vessel is deflected, a distinctive change in stress acting on the thumb pad was detected. This is thought to be because the deflected blood vessel causes stress on the thumb pad, which causes a bending moment on the wings of the winged needle. By measuring the change in stress distribution acting on the thumb pad at this time, the direction in which the blood vessels are deflected can be detected.