Development of a remote insertion device for oral brachytherapy

Abstract

In brachytherapy of oral cancer, surgeons are exposed to radiation because of radioactive ¹⁹⁸Au sources. To reduce the exposure dose, we developed a remotely operated device for the brachytherapy. This paper introduces a newly developed insertion device. This device consists of four units: surgical arm, insertion mechanism, rotation mechanism and diameter adjuster. The main feature of the device is that the insertion movement can be done by simply pushing the wire. We confirmed that the device can perform circumferential insertion with the rotation mechanism. Moreover, the device was able to perform insertions on a gripped tongue analog.