TINUSA

The primary objective of brain tumor surgery is the precise and safe removal of diseased tissue. In certain cases, high-frequency ultrasound waves are employed in neurosurgery using an ultrasound aspirator, enabling the targeted destruction of tumors. The ultrasonic aspirator is currently operated manually, with three parameters controlling its function: suction strength, ultrasonic power, and the addition of irrigation fluid. The TINUSA project aims to integrate real-time tissue differentiation with ultrasonic aspiration to develop a self-regulating ultrasonic aspirator. For this purpose, data collected intraoperatively is used to integrate an intelligent control function into the ultrasonic aspirator. The implementation of this function will be accomplished through the use of algorithms that are currently under development.

Preliminary work by our research groups at the Lübeck campus has shown that the firmness of the aspirated tissue is very specific for differentiating between different tumour types and can be estimated from the electronic data of the aspirator. For this purpose, simple tissue phantoms with uniform, known firmness were measured in a reproducible laboratory setup and an estimation of tissue firmness was developed with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). As part of the TINUSA project, these fundamental findings are to be translated into application.