Ocular Surgery Guidance With Real-Time Tissue Boundary Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Minimally invasive surgeries face challenges in accurately visualizing the three-dimensional relationship between surgical instruments and tissues due to limitations in current imaging modalities, leading to potential tissue damage and increased patient risk, especially in procedures like ocular surgery where unintended contact can cause irreversible damage.
Innovation Solution
A surgical guidance system that provides real-time visual, auditory, and haptic feedback by analyzing image data to determine the distance between a surgical instrument and tissue boundaries, using a feedback loop to adjust haptic resistance and instrument movement, and incorporating direct haptic feedback devices to prevent tissue collision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If minimally invasive surgery is performed using small incisions and imaging modalities, then patient recovery is faster and risk of complications is reduced, but accurate visualization of the three-dimensional relationship between surgical instruments and tissues is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms two-dimensional medical imaging data into three-dimensional visualizations, allowing surgeons to perceive depth and spatial relationships in the surgical field. The system reconstructs 3D models from 2D images and overlays them with instrument position data, enabling accurate visualization of instrument-tissue relationships without requiring large incisions for direct visual access.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an image-guided visualization system as an intermediary between the surgical instruments and the surgeon's perception. This intermediary process integrates multiple imaging modalities, processes the data in real-time, and presents enhanced 3D visualizations that reveal spatial relationships not directly observable through conventional imaging alone.
2Measurement precision
If real-time image analysis is performed to identify tissue boundaries and instrument positions, then surgical precision is improved, but computational complexity increases causing delays in visual output
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary processing of imaging data during the setup phase, pre-segmenting tissue types and establishing baseline 3D models before the surgical procedure begins. This allows the real-time system during surgery to focus only on tracking instrument positions and updating critical measurements, significantly reducing computational latency during actual surgical operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements continuous real-time tracking and visualization that updates surgical images and instrument positions without interruption or noticeable delay. The system maintains constant image acquisition and processing streams, ensuring that visual feedback to the surgeon is continuous and immediate, enabling precise surgical maneuvers without temporal gaps in information.
3Reliability
If haptic feedback devices are used to provide real-time feedback on tissue proximity, then tissue damage is prevented, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines visual imaging systems, computer processing units, and haptic feedback devices into an integrated surgical guidance system. The image acquisition, real-time processing, visualization, and haptic feedback components are merged into a unified system that operates seamlessly, reducing the complexity that would arise from separate independent systems while maintaining comprehensive tissue protection capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a closed-loop feedback system where real-time imaging data about tissue boundaries and instrument positions is continuously processed and fed back to the surgeon through both visual displays and haptic cues. This feedback mechanism automatically alerts the surgeon when instruments approach critical tissue structures, enabling preventive action without requiring complex manual monitoring or interpretation.
4Loss of information
If multiple imaging modalities are integrated to provide comprehensive visualization, then understanding of surgical field is improved, but system complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal image processing platform that can handle multiple imaging modalities (ultrasound, MRI, CT, fluoroscopy) through a single integrated system. The software architecture is designed to accept various input formats and automatically process them using common algorithms for 3D reconstruction and registration, eliminating the need for separate specialized processing systems for each imaging modality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the complex task of multi-modal image integration into distinct functional modules: image acquisition, preprocessing, registration, 3D reconstruction, and visualization. Each module handles a specific aspect of the processing pipeline independently, allowing the system to manage multiple imaging modalities without overwhelming computational complexity, as each segment can be optimized and processed separately.
Data Source
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AI summary
An image-guided surgical system includes a processor, a display communicatively coupled to the processor, and an imaging system communicatively coupled to the processor. A memory device, communicatively coupled to the processor, stores instructions, executable by the processor, to cause the processor to receive, from the imaging system, real-time image data of an ophthalmological surgical field during an ophthalmological surgical procedure, and analyze the image data in real-time to identify an ocular tissue boundary present in the image data of the ophthalmological surgical field. The instructions cause the processor to provide real-time visual, auditory, and/or haptic feedback in response to the identified ocular tissue boundary.