Medical probes with field transducers

Abstract

A field transducer (30) for determining position or orientation in a medical instrument locating system is placed at an arbitrary position or orientation with respect to a feature (62) of the instrument (46). The transducer (30) may be attached at an arbitrary location on the instrument (46), or the instrument (400, 404) may be bent as desired by the user. A transform relating position or orientation of a feature of the instrument to position or orientation of the transducer is obtained in a calibration cycle. A field transducer may be part of a disposable unit which is irrevocably altered when used with an instrument, so that the unit cannot be reused.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to medical probes having field transducers used for detecting the disposition of the probe, and to the medical procedures utilizing such probes.[0002] Conventional surgical procedures involve cutting through bodily structures to expose a lesion or organ within the body for treatment. Because these procedures create considerable trauma to the patient, physicians have developed minimally invasive procedures using probes inserted into the body. For example, devices commonly referred to as endoscopes include an elongated body having a distal end and a proximal end. The distal end of the probe body can be inserted into the gastrointestinal tract through a body orifice. The endoscope may be equipped with optical devices such as cameras or fiber optics to permit observation of the tissues surrounding the distal end, and surgery may be performed by inserting and maneuvering surgical instruments through a channel in the endoscope body. Other probes common...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

0009] Because the transform between disposition of the first field transducer and disposition of the probe body feature is determined during the calibration cycle, there is no need for any particular, predetermined spatial relationship between the first field transducer or position sensor and the distal end or other feature of the probe body to be tracked by the system during use. All that is required is that the spatial relationship remain fixed after calibration. Thus, according to this aspect of the invention, there is no need for any special configuration of the probe body; provided that the first field transducer or position sensor can be securely attached to a medical instrument of any type which can be inserted into the patient or contacted with the patient, that medical instrument can serve as an instrumented probe. This aspect of the invention allows the physician to use existing tools and to track the disposition of existing tools in the same manner as a specialized sensor-equipped probe.

0010] T...

Problems solved by technology

Because these procedures create considerable trauma to the patient, physicians have developed minimally invasive procedures using probes inserted into the body.

However, this option is available only for probes such...

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