Salvadores Fernandez, Carmen;
(2023)
Sensorised surgical gloves with a potential to enable safer interventions and surgical training.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The broad focus of this thesis is the design of advanced nanocomposites for healthcare applications, such as flexible electronics, tactile systems, monitoring devices and human-computer interfaces. Advanced interfacial engineering can enable the successful realisation of three features that are particularly important for healthcare applications: wettability control, antimicrobial activity, and sensing of physiological parameters. In this thesis, a sprayable multifunctional triboelectric coating is exploited as a nontoxic, ultrathin tactile sensor. The coating is based on a polymer blend mixed with zinc oxide nanoparticles, which provide antifouling and antibacterial properties, while being superhydrophobic and non-cytotoxic. The coating is also triboelectric and can be applied directly onto surgical gloves with printed electrodes. The sensorised gloves so obtained enable mechanical energy harvesting, force sensing, and detection of materials stiffness changes directly from fingertip. These sensors can complement the proprioceptive feedback form clinicians while not interfering with the usual sensory perception of the user due to the thinness achieved. These sensors also function effectively even when a second glove is worn on top, providing greater confidence in maintaining sterility. As a clinical case study for stiffness detection, successful detection of anal sphincter injury in pigs ex vivo and of sutures in foetal skull models is demonstrated. This may lead to improved accuracy in the diagnosis of anal sphincter injury and in the assessment of foetal orientation in operative birth, resulting in fewer complications and increased quality of life. To extend the capabilities of the coating, this thesis also focuses on the design and study of other kinds of force sensors. Measuring intraoperative forces in real time can provide feedback mechanisms to improve patient safety and neurosurgical training. For this purpose, we have carried out a pre-clinical study with neurosurgeons of varying grades to analyse and compare the forces exerted throughout a validated microsurgical task while wearing the sensorised glove with piezoresistive melamine based sensors. All in all, the multifunctional triboelectric coating and the sensorised surgical glove with force sensors offer innovative solutions for healthcare applications, hopefully leading to improved patient safety and surgical training in the future.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Sensorised surgical gloves with a potential to enable safer interventions and surgical training |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Mechanical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10184019 |
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