Guided Port Placement Selection for Collision-Aware Surgical Access

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing systems for selecting port placements in minimally invasive procedures fail to account for variations in patient anatomy, instrument capabilities, and operator preferences, leading to suboptimal port placements that may result in collisions, reduced reachability, and decreased operability.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that utilize a control unit to receive a patient model, identify potential port locations, evaluate collision volumes, reachability metrics, and anthropomorphic metrics to determine optimal port placements, considering kinematic measures and human factors constraints.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If port locations are selected to maximize reachability to target anatomy, then the ability to access surgical sites is improved, but the likelihood of collisions between instruments and device components increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvereachability to target anatomyVSAvoidlikelihood of collisions
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary calculations of collision volumes for each potential port location before final port placement is made. By pre-computing the collision volumes and evaluating them against device components, the system identifies port locations that provide good reachability while avoiding areas that would cause collisions during instrument manipulation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The collision volume serves as an intermediary representation that mediates between the port location selection and the actual collision risk. The system uses this intermediate collision volume model to evaluate and compare different port locations, allowing optimization of both reachability and collision avoidance without direct trial-and-error testing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Stability of the object's composition

If port locations are selected based on standard anatomical landmarks, then placement consistency is improved, but adaptability to individual patient anatomy variations is reduced

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveplacement consistencyVSAvoidadaptability to patient anatomy variations
Core Design Contradiction:
Stability of the object's compositionVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The system evaluates port locations based on local anatomical characteristics specific to each patient's anatomy rather than applying uniform standard landmark rules. By analyzing the specific geometric features and spatial relationships in each patient's anatomy, the system adapts port location selection to individual variations while maintaining systematic evaluation criteria.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system adjusts port location parameters based on patient-specific anatomical measurements and characteristics. Rather than fixing port locations to standard anatomical landmarks, the system varies the location parameters according to the actual patient anatomy, allowing optimization for each individual case while maintaining consistent evaluation methodology.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Measurement precision

If multiple port locations are evaluated in detail, then selection accuracy is improved, but computational time and system complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveport placement selection accuracyVSAvoidcomputational time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The evaluation process is segmented into distinct computational stages: first calculating collision volumes for each port location, then determining reachability metrics, and finally computing anthropomorphic metrics. This segmentation allows the system to process multiple port locations systematically, breaking down the complex evaluation into manageable steps that can be performed efficiently.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system calculates collision volumes, reachability metrics, and anthropomorphic metrics for multiple port locations beyond what would be minimally necessary, then uses these comprehensive data to select the optimal location. By performing evaluations for more locations than strictly needed and using aggregate metrics, the system achieves high selection accuracy while distributing computational effort across multiple candidates.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentEP3703604B1Systems for guided port placement selection
Publication Date: 2025.08.06 INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS INC
  • EP3703604B1 patent drawingFigure 1
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AI summary

Systems and methods for guided port placement selection include receiving a patient model, identifying a plurality of port locations on the patient model for accessing a workspace using a plurality of instruments controlled by a computer-assisted device and displaying one or more of the combinations of the plurality of port locations to a user along with a corresponding aggregate metric. For each of the port locations, the method includes determining a collision volume for portions of the computer-assisted device proximal to the port location, a reachability metric, and an anthropomorphic metric. For each combination of the plurality of port locations, the method includes determining a collision metric based on overlaps of the collision volumes for the port locations in the combination, and an aggregate metric for the combination.