Comparison of Force Required for Lumbar Puncture With Different Gauges of Spinal Needle Using Fiber Bragg Grating Force Device

The deployment of the spinal needle of an appropriate gauge is highly essential in order to significantly reduce the side effects of lumbar puncture procedures performed for spinal anaesthesia and spinal surgeries. The gauge of the spinal needle used for the procedure plays a significant role in determining the force required for its insertion into the tissue and is chosen by the medical practitioner performing the procedure based on the expertise. The selection of the optimum gauge of the needle is subjective to the level of discretion exercised by the surgeon. This paper shows a comparative analysis of the force required for lumbar puncture with various tissue layers traversal by four different gauges of the spinal needle, making use of a real time dynamic force monitoring device which employs a fiber Bragg grating sensor. The fiber Bragg grating (FBG) force device (FBGFD) is used to measure the force variations on different gauges of spinal needle during the lumbar puncture procedure performed first on a simulator model and subsequently on a human cadaver specimen. The FBGFD facilitates dynamic measurement of force variation on the spinal needle during the penetration by the sensing bar mechanism which is acquired by the FBG sensor bonded over it with a resolution of 0.021 N. This comparative study of force may serve as a guideline for selection of proper gauge spinal needle during tissue puncture procedures minimizing post puncture effects on patients.