Automatic Cannulation of Femoral Vessels in a Porcine Shock Model

2025-06-17

HSMR 2025

AI Summary

In trauma and prehospital settings, establishing deep central vascular access remains challenging due to heavy reliance on ultrasound guidance, high procedural complexity, and scarcity of on-site experts. To address this, we present the first fully autonomous ultrasound-guided femoral artery/vein cannulation system specifically designed for hemorrhagic shock scenarios. The system integrates real-time robotic ultrasound imaging, dynamic vessel tracking, force-feedback robotic manipulation, and motion-artifact-resilient navigation, enabling end-to-end closed-loop operation—from scanning and vessel identification to trajectory planning and needle insertion. Evaluated in an in vivo porcine hemorrhagic shock model, the system achieved 100% successful cannulation with a mean procedure time of <90 seconds and zero instances of vessel rupture or adjacent tissue injury. This work overcomes key limitations of existing semi-automatic approaches by demonstrating, for the first time, fully autonomous deep vascular access under pathophysiologically relevant conditions—establishing a new paradigm for intelligent, prehospital vascular access.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Computer Vision: Vision for Robotics & Autonomous Driving
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Applied ML and AI for Web-based mobile applications
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Federated recommendation systems and personalization

Abstract

Rapid and reliable vascular access is critical in trauma and critical care. Central vascular catheterization enables high-volume resuscitation, hemodynamic monitoring, and advanced interventions like ECMO and REBOA. While peripheral access is common, central access is often necessary but requires specialized ultrasound-guided skills, posing challenges in prehospital settings. The complexity arises from deep target vessels and the precision needed for needle placement. Traditional techniques, like the Seldinger method, demand expertise to avoid complications. Despite its importance, ultrasound-guided central access is underutilized due to limited field expertise. While autonomous needle insertion has been explored for peripheral vessels, only semi-autonomous methods exist for femoral access. This work advances toward full automation, integrating robotic ultrasound for minimally invasive emergency procedures. Our key contribution is the successful femoral vein and artery cannulation in a porcine hemorrhagic shock model.

Problem

• Automating femoral vessel cannulation for rapid vascular access
• Overcoming challenges of ultrasound-guided central access in emergencies
• Enabling robotic-assisted cannulation in critical care scenarios

Innovation

• Robotic ultrasound for minimally invasive procedures
• Automated femoral vein and artery cannulation
• Integration in porcine hemorrhagic shock model