Page 408 - Flexible Robotics in Medicine

402 Chapter 18

Figure 18.1
Diagram explaining the limited field of view of an endoscope without an active steering
mechanism, leading to inconvenience in obtaining a sample from a tissue of interest that is not
precisely at the distal end of the endoscope.

portion of the endoscope can be manually controlled by the operator at the proximal end
[2]. The flexible biopsy forceps inserted through the endoscope can only bend passively,
but a transluminal procedure can have many corners and curved regions [9]. Even with the
endoscope’s dynamic bending capabilities, it is challenging to manipulate the endoscope
around these regions and effectively conduct the biopsy using the forceps [10]. This results
in a huge amount of time navigating and adjusting the endoscope just to obtain the right
angle or the area of interest to conduct the biopsy [11]. However, if the flexible biopsy
forceps also have active bending capabilities at the distal end, the ability to conduct these
fine and minute adjustments would significantly speed up the biopsy process [12,13].

Another problem with current biopsy procedures is that, due to the passively bending forceps,
the operator is unable to place the endoscope far away from the region of interest where the