Pelvic Surgery Navigation with Automated Anatomical Registration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical navigation systems require manual and time-consuming registration processes for patient anatomy, which can be inaccurate and hinder precise computer-assisted navigation during pelvic surgeries.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses a navigated ball tip stylus to palpate pelvic bone surfaces, identifying landmarks and determining the center of rotation and orientation of pelvic planes through continuous contact or intermittent contact, enabling automated and accurate registration for computer-assisted navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual registration processes are used for patient anatomy, then the registration can be performed with existing systems, but the process is time-consuming and reduces accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical registration operations with an automated optical tracking system. The navigated instrument with tracking fiducials allows the computer system to automatically calculate landmark positions and determine pelvic plane orientations without manual measurement, thereby improving both accuracy and efficiency simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service registration by allowing the navigated instrument to automatically identify and record landmark positions as it contacts bone surfaces during normal surgical exploration. The computer system processes these contacts autonomously to establish the registration without requiring separate manual measurement steps.
2Productivity
If automated registration is implemented, then registration accuracy and efficiency are improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The navigated instrument serves multiple functions: it acts as both a surgical tool for exploring bone surfaces and as a measurement device for automatic landmark identification. The tracking fiducials on the instrument enable it to function as both a surgical implement and a position sensor, reducing the need for separate registration equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the registration function with the normal surgical navigation instrument. The tracking fiducials are integrated into the navigated instrument itself, merging the measurement and surgical functions into a single device, thereby reducing overall system complexity while enabling automated registration.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system for computer assisted navigation during surgery includes computer platform that operates to identify a set of locations at which a navigated instrument is palpitating a landmark defined on a surface of a pelvic bone of a patient. Further operations determine a center of rotation for a pelvic acetabulum of the patient based on the identified set of locations at which the navigated instrument is palpitating the landmark. Operations determine an orientation of an anterior pelvic plane (APP) and/or a functional pelvic plane (FPP) of the patient based on the identified set of locations at which the navigated instrument is palpitating the landmark and based on the determined center of rotation for the pelvic acetabulum.