Overview
ARC is a passively adjustable-stiffness steerable coaxial needle designed to improve access and accuracy in image-guided percutaneous procedures, without increasing system complexity. It enables controlled trajectory deviations only when needed, while remaining fully usable as a conventional straight needle for most of the insertion.
Unlike actively actuated or sensor-based steerable needles, ARC does not force or compensate needle–tissue interaction. Instead, it deliberately leverages the natural interaction between a beveled tip and surrounding tissues, by locally reducing stiffness at the distal end through selectively unlocked flexible segments.
Principle of operation
With ARC, single insertion, multiple targets are enabled by this approach, allowing trajectory correction or curved paths on demand, while preserving a stable and predictable behavior during straight insertion.
By avoiding repeated punctures, ARC can reduce procedure time, improve access to constrained anatomical regions, and limit risks associated with multiple insertions, such as infection or tissue trauma.
Industrial and regulatory relevance
From an industrial perspective, ARC relies on a purely mechanical architecture, with no embedded electronics, no active actuation, and no complex control. This supports robustness, sterilizability, manufacturing scalability, and regulatory compatibility, while keeping integration costs low.
Compatibility and integration
By design, ARC is compatible with standard imaging modalities, including ultrasound, fluoroscopy, computed tomography (CT), and MRI, and is naturally suited for manual use or robotic assistance.
Its degrees of freedom remain simple and decoupled: linear insertion, optional stiffness adjustment, and axial rotation, the latter directly setting the direction of deflection through bevel orientation. This makes ARC readily integrable into robotic or teleoperated systems, without requiring complex actuation or control schemes.
Targeted applications
ARC is particularly suited for image-guided percutaneous procedures where access constraints, anatomical variability, or multi-target strategies benefit from adaptive yet predictable needle behavior.
- Thermal ablation (radiofrequency, microwave, cryoablation), enabling access to multiple lesions or margins from a single insertion.
- Biopsy procedures, allowing trajectory correction and sampling of multiple regions without needle reinsertion.
- Fiducial marker placement, improving placement accuracy in constrained geometries while reducing the number of punctures.
- Brachytherapy, where controlled deviations can facilitate access to planned target volumes while maintaining compatibility with existing planning workflows.
- Targeted drug delivery or injections, especially in heterogeneous or deformable soft tissues.
- Drainage or access procedures, requiring fine trajectory adjustment near sensitive structures.
