Automating 3D Surgical Suture Planning

In surgical practice, precise and careful suture placement can reduce scarring and speed healing. Surgeons rely on expertise to guide where they place suture needle entry and exit points, but the complexity of wound geometry and tissue dynamics makes it challenging for even experienced surgeons to select suture placement. We extend our previous 2D suture planning algorithm with SP3DEEF: Suture Planning 3D Equalizing Elliptical Forces, an algorithm that outputs an optimized suture plan considering forces acting on the wound and surrounding tissue in 3D. In physical experiments with raw chicken thighs, SP3DEEF was able to generate suture plans that meet all specifications in under 60 seconds. When manually executed with a surgical needle by an untrained engineering student, the resulting suture plans completely closed all wounds with little buckling or gaps.