Patient-Worn HMD Guidance for Awake Brain Surgery Evaluation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Awake brain surgery poses challenges due to patient discomfort, emotional distress, and difficulty in communication and cognitive testing, with existing evaluation methods being inefficient and time-consuming.
Innovation Solution
A surgical system incorporating a navigation system, head-mounted device (HMD), and control system to track surgical instruments and patient responses, providing real-time feedback and monitoring through augmented reality to enhance patient interaction and evaluation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional manual evaluation methods are used to assess patient neurological function, then the surgeon can obtain baseline responses, but the procedure becomes time-consuming and extends surgery duration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical evaluation methods with an automated digital system. The head-mounted device captures patient responses through cameras and microphones, while software algorithms automatically analyze speech, cognitive test responses, and neurological functions, eliminating the need for manual assessment by surgical team members.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-evaluation where the patient's own responses are automatically captured and analyzed by the digital platform. The software processes speech patterns, cognitive answers, and neurological responses without requiring external manual intervention, allowing continuous autonomous monitoring during surgery.
2Reliability
If the patient remains conscious and awake during surgery to enable real-time neurological testing, then brain function evaluation is possible, but the patient experiences emotional distress, anxiety, and discomfort
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors patient neurological responses and provides real-time feedback to the surgical team. By objectively measuring speech, cognitive function, and neurological status, the system gives patients a sense of control and awareness of their own functioning, reducing anxiety through quantifiable data rather than subjective feeling alone.
Solution Approach 2:
The digital evaluation system acts as an intermediary between the patient's internal state and the surgical team's understanding. Rather than requiring direct intense interaction that may increase patient awareness of distress, the system mediates through objective measurements and automated assessments, creating a buffer that reduces emotional impact while maintaining evaluation accuracy.
3Manufacturing precision
If multiple surgical instruments and draping are used to maintain sterile field and access brain tissue, then surgical precision is achieved, but patient communication and cognitive testing become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The head-mounted device serves multiple functions simultaneously: it captures video and audio for neurological evaluation, provides augmented reality overlays for surgical guidance, and enables continuous monitoring without interfering with surgical instruments or sterile draping. This multi-functional approach maintains surgical precision while facilitating communication and testing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a digital dimension to the surgical environment by overlaying virtual information in the patient's visual field through augmented reality. This allows communication and evaluation to occur in a different dimensional space that does not interfere with the physical surgical field or instrument access, maintaining precision while enabling interaction.
4Reliability
If frequent neurological assessments are performed during surgery to ensure brain function preservation, then patient safety is improved, but the procedure becomes more time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables continuous neurological monitoring throughout the entire surgical procedure rather than requiring intermittent stoppages for assessment. The head-mounted device continuously captures speech, cognitive responses, and neurological data, allowing safety monitoring to occur without interruption to the surgical flow, thereby maintaining both patient safety and surgical efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for enhancing awake brain surgery include a navigation system to track a pose of a surgical instrument relative to a pose of the target anatomy of a patient. A head-mounted device (HMD) is worn by the patient during surgery. A control system is in communication with the navigation system and the HMD. The control system registers one or more images with the target anatomy. The control system identifies a structure of the target anatomy based on the one or more images of the target anatomy. The control system detects the pose of the surgical instrument being proximate to the identified structure of target anatomy, and based on such, the control system controls the HMD to generate an output to provoke a response of the patient.