3D Cranial Surgical Pathway Voxel Mapping System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical procedures for cranial surgery lack an efficient method to visualize and map a three-dimensional surgical pathway within cranial structures that avoids bone and tissue barriers, making it difficult to navigate surgical tools non-invasively.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that selects a series of voxels between an entry and target voxel in a cranial scan to define a 3D surgical pathway, using relative distances and weights to exclude voxels representing bone or tissue, and highlights the pathway for visualization, allowing for the insertion of surgical tools along the optimal route.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a traditional pathfinding algorithm is used to determine a surgical pathway through cranial structures, then the pathway can be visualized, but the computational complexity increases and the process becomes slower
Solution Approach 1:
The cranial volume is segmented into discrete voxels with specific material properties assigned to each. The pathway is constructed by selecting a sequence of adjacent voxels rather than calculating continuous paths, dividing the complex navigation problem into discrete selection steps that are computationally simpler and faster to process.
2Length of moving object
If the surgical pathway passes close to bone structures, then the pathway length is reduced, but the difficulty of tool insertion increases due to barrier effects
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the cranial volume are assigned different material properties and weights. Bone voxels are assigned high weights to discourage pathway selection, while air-filled sinus voxels are assigned low weights to encourage selection. This local differentiation allows the pathway to naturally avoid bone barriers while maintaining reasonable length through weighted voxel selection.
3Ease of operation
If a detailed 3D pathway map is generated to avoid bone and tissue barriers, then tool insertion becomes easier, but the computational resources and time required increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically determines the optimal pathway by evaluating voxel material properties and weights without requiring manual tracing or complex interactive planning. The algorithm self-selects the optimal sequence of voxels based on predefined criteria, eliminating time-consuming manual operations while providing detailed 3D pathway visualization that facilitates easy tool insertion.
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatus and methods are provided for mapping and displaying three dimensional surgical pathways within imaging of cranial structures derived from voxels of a cranial scan. Entry voxel and target voxel are selected as pathway endpoints. A series of respective neighbor voxels are mapped between the entry voxel and the target voxel to define a pathway. For each voxel Vxi,yi,zi in the series, an immediately succeeding voxel of voxel Vxi,yi,zi is selected from among the group of neighbor voxel of voxel Vxi,yi,zi which excludes neighbor voxels of the immediately preceding voxel of voxel Vxi,yi,zi. The selection is made by comparing selection weights determined based on relative distances with respect to the endpoint voxels and relative distance from voxels within a predetermined distance that represent at least a threshold density. The voxels of the pathway are then selectively highlighted in a displayed view to provide a visualization of the 3D surgical pathway.