Experimental Investigation of Neurosurgical Rotary Ultrasonic Bone Grinding

Abstract

Neurosurgical bone grinding is a procedure in which a part of the bone is removed using mechanical grinding process and then the passage is created to reach the tumor s locations within the brain and spine; thus, treating abnormal accumulation of the mass causing cancer. A miniature grinding burr is inserted in the nostril along with the endoscope to remove the skull bone with abrasion action. Now, when grinding burr comes in contact with the surface of bone then the bone is removed in the form of microchips and leads to the increment in the temperature at the grinding site. This rise in temperature has adverse effects on soft and hard tissues since a lot of critical nerve branches surrounds the skull bone. These nerve branches include temporal branch, zygomatic branch, cervical branch, facial nerves, posterior auricular branch, greater petrosal nerves etc. These nerves are responsible for the important functioning of human body organs. Blood coagulation, optic nerve damage, thermogenesis and osteonecrosis are other associated concerns of temperature rise. Therefore, it becomes vital to limit the temperature to safe levels to avoid any king of thermal trauma during osteotomy. Hence, the research endeavor of the present work is paying attention and introduces some strategies to minimize the temperature produced during the bone grinding. In present research work, a new strategy of using rotary ultrasonic bone grinding has been introduced and further explored for different response characteristics. A spherical diamond burr has been used for the experimentation and porcine bone is used as the workpiece material. Different input parameters rotational speed, feed rate, and frequency has been investigated at three states in terms of change in temperature and thermal biological damage. The systematic investigation has been carried out to determine the effect of varying process parameters on the osteonecrosis at the cut surface.