Tissue Deformation and Insertion Force of Bee-Stinger Inspired Surgical Needles

Surgical needles are commonly used to reach target locations inside of the body for percutaneous procedures. The major issues in needle steering in tissues are the insertion force which causes tissue damage and tissue deformation that causes the needle path deviation (i.e., tip deflection) resulting in the needle missing the intended target. In this study, honeybee-inspired needle prototypes were proposed and studied to decrease the insertion force and to reduce the tissue deformation. Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology was used to manufacture scaled-up needle prototypes. Needle insertion tests on tissue-mimicking polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gel were performed to measure the insertion force and the tip deflection. Digital image correlation (DIC) study was conducted to determine the tissue deformation during the insertion. It was demonstrated that the bioinspired needles can be utilized to decrease the insertion force by 24% and to minimize the tip deflection. It was also observed that the bioinspired needles decrease the tissue deformation by 17%. From this study, it can be concluded that the proposed bee-inspired needle design can be used to develop and manufacture innovative surgical needles for more effective and less invasive percutaneous procedures.