Needle guidance using laser generated leaky acoustic waves

Needle guidance using B-mode ultrasound is performed to visualize both anatomical structures and the needle position in clinical applications such as tissue biopsy and drug delivery. However, the transducer-needle orientation is limited due to reflection of the acoustic waves. Last year, we proposed a method to exploit the use of leaky acoustic waves for needle visualization. The method uses laser pulses irradiating on the top of the needle to generate acoustic waves. These acoustic waves propagate along the needle surface which then leak into surrounding medium that can be detected by a ultrasound transducer. The needle position can be calculated based on phase velocities of two different wave modes. The objective of the current research is to further investigate performance of the proposed method and to develop improvement schemes to overcome previous limitations.