Engineering Commons^™

Optical Tracking System To Monitor Laparoscopic Training, William D. Rytlewski

Masters Theses

Laparoscopic Surgery, also known as Minimally Invasive Surgery, is a surgical technique where surgeons perform surgery through small incisions in the patient’s abdomen using a camera to monitor the movements of the instruments inside the patient. In order for the surgery to be performed, the surgeon must possess a unique set of skills obtained through training using a variety of techniques. Simulators are the preferred method of training for laparoscopic surgery since they provide medical residents with real world scenarios as well as a tremendous amount of feedback on what he/she did wrong or right. However, due to the high …

Human Intracranial High Frequency Oscillation Detection Using Time Frequency Analysis And Its Relation To The Seizure Onset Zone, Riazul Islam

Masters Theses

One third of the patients diagnosed with focal epilepsy do not respond to antiepileptic drugs. For these patients the possible diagnosis options to give seizure freedom or at least reduce seizure frequencies significantly would be surgical resection or seizure interrupting implantable devices. The success of these procedures depends on accurate detection of the region causing seizure also known as epileptic zone. This requires detail pre-surgical evaluation including Invasive Video Electroencephalographic Monitoring (IVEM). The resulting great volume of intracranial Electroencephalography (iEEG) signal is visually examined by an expert epileptologist which can be time consuming, extremely complex, and not always effective. We …

High Level Synthesis, A Use Case Comparison With Hardware Description Language, Michael D. Zwagerman

Masters Theses

This paper compares Vivado High-Level Synthesis (HLS), a new mainstream technology offered by Xilinx Inc., against the typical Hardware Description Language (HDL) design approach. An example video filter application was implemented via both methods and compared for differences in performance and Non-Reoccurring Engineering (NRE). Lessons learned using HLS are also provided. The objective of this paper is to provide actual comparison data on the current state of mainstream HLS to enable informed decision making for designs considering HLS.

The Xilinx Zync System on a Chip (SoC) offering is used as a platform for both the traditional HDL methods and HLS. …

Durability Of Sutures Used In Partial Nephrectomy: Tested Across Commonly Used Diameters And Materials Stopped With Lapra-Ty® Suture Clips And Hem-O-Lok® Ligation Systems Under A Given Tension, Nadia Sunny

Masters Theses

The primary healing of soft tissue incision advances in the first fourteen days after surgery. Sutures used to close the incision are terminated with knots to last over this period under tension inside the tissue. However, knots significantly reduce the tensile strength of the sutures, and make the surgery closing time longer and tedious. Suture clips are used to overcome these limitations. It was found in prior researches that sutures slip out of the suture clips, although the manufacturer of the LAPRA-TY® suture clips claims endurance of this product under tension for at least fourteen days. Use of suture clips …

Comparison Of Sutures And Devices Used In Closure Following Partial Nephrectomy Suturing, Bikal Paka

Masters Theses

Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) is an effective surgical procedure to remove a small renal tumor, while preserving the remainder of the kidney. However, it is a technically challenging procedure to maintain hemostatic condition on the kidney during LPN suturing. Three different experiments were conducted to explore the characteristics and limitations of the current mechanism for tissue approximation during LPN procedures.

During the first experiment, a standard suture anchor Hem-o-lok device, a standard stop knot, and three prototype devices were compared to each other based on the amount of tension that could be placed on a suture before there was a …

A Cost-Effective Haptic Device For Assistive And Rehabilitation Purposes, Archana Pradeep

Masters Theses

With the growing population of elderly, the need for assistance has also increased considerably especially for the tasks such as cleaning, reaching and grasping objects among others. There are numerous assistive devices in the market for this group of people. However, they are either too expensive or require overwhelming user effort for manipulation. Therefore, the presented research is primarily concerned with developing a low-cost, easy to use assistive device for elderly to reach and grasp objects through intuitive interface for the control of a slave anthropomorphic robotic arm (tele operator). The system also implements haptic feedback technology that enables the …