Biologically inspired microtexturing: Investigation into the surface topography of next-generation neurosurgical probes

Minimally Invasive (MI) surgery represents the future of many types of medical intervention (keyhole neurosurgery, natural orifice trans-luminal endoscopic surgery, etc.). However, the shortcomings of today´s surgical tools fuel the need for the development of next-generation “smart instrumentation”, which will be more accurate and safer for the patient. This paper presents the preliminary results of a biologically inspired microtexturing method, based on UV-lithography, and its application to MI neurosurgery. These results suggest that the size and geometry of the texture “printed” on the outer surface of a neurosurgical probe clearly affect the insertion and extraction forces generated at the brain-probe interface. Thus, by carefully choosing an appropriate microtexture, unique insertion characteristics can be obtained, which can improve the performance of existing instruments (e.g. reducing slippage in permanent electrodes such as those used in deep brain stimulation) or enable the development of novel designs altogether.