Continuous Catheter Registration for Accurate Image-Guided Surgery
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing minimally invasive medical procedures face challenges in accurately registering models of patient anatomy with medical instruments, necessitating improved systems and methods for image-guided surgery to minimize tissue damage and clinical disturbances.
Innovation Solution
A method involving accessing model points in a model space, collecting measured points along a catheter in patient space, registering these points to produce registration candidates, and selecting an optimal subset for displaying a visual representation to align the model with the patient space, using a tracking system with flexible catheters and sensors to monitor physiological functions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional registration methods are used to align anatomical models with medical instruments, then the registration process can be completed, but the accuracy of instrument navigation within patient anatomy is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the anatomical model and instrument data into discrete point sets that can be independently processed and registered. The anatomical structure is represented as a cloud of points, and the instrument position is represented as separate measured points, allowing for precise alignment through point-to-point correspondence analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously compares measured instrument positions with the anatomical model during the procedure, providing real-time feedback on registration quality. This allows for iterative refinement of the registration transformation to maintain high accuracy throughout the surgical procedure.
2Measurement precision
If multiple measured points are collected along the catheter to improve registration accuracy, then the precision of anatomical alignment is enhanced, but the complexity of the registration process increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts key geometric features and characteristics from the collected measured points along the catheter. Rather than processing all raw measurement data, the system extracts essential spatial relationships and anatomical landmarks, simplifying the registration computation while maintaining accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces complex mechanical registration procedures with computational algorithms that automatically process measured points. Software-based point cloud registration and transformation algorithms substitute for manual anatomical landmark identification and physical alignment procedures.
3Measurement precision
If real-time tracking of medical instruments is implemented to improve navigation accuracy, then instrument position precision is enhanced, but the amount of data processing and system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The anatomical model is pre-processed and registered to the patient's anatomy before the surgical procedure begins. This preliminary registration establishes a reference framework that reduces the computational burden during real-time tracking, as subsequent instrument positions can be quickly transformed into this pre-established coordinate system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a virtual copy or digital twin of the anatomical structure from pre-operative imaging data. This digital model serves as a lightweight representation that can be rapidly processed and compared with real-time instrument measurements without requiring heavy computational resources during the actual surgery.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2B
Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
Methods and systems of registering a model of one or more anatomic passageways of a patient to a patient space are provided herein. An exemplary method may include accessing a set of model points of the model of the passageways, the model points being associated with a model space, collecting measured points along a length of a catheter inserted into the passageways of the patient, the measured points determined by a shape of the catheter, and assigning points of the first set to a plurality of subsets. The exemplary method may further include registering each of the subsets with the model points to produce a plurality of registration candidates, comparing the candidates to identify an optimal subset associated with an optimal registration of the plurality of candidates that translates the set of model points and at least one set of the sets of measured points into a common space.