Surgical Approach Ranking System for Minimizing Collateral Damage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The selection of appropriate surgical pathways for accessing surgical targets in complex anatomical regions is often unintuitive due to the extensive number of possible pathways and inconsistent nature of target pathologies, leading to challenges in minimizing collateral damage and optimizing surgical outcomes.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that determines surgical approach and pathway characteristics to rank various surgical approaches, allowing for the selection of optimal pathways that improve access to surgical targets while reducing collateral damage, by receiving data on surgical targets and portals, determining multiple pathways and approaches, calculating approach and pathway characteristics, and providing a representation of the selected subset for improved surgical planning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If multiple surgical pathways are considered to improve access to surgical targets, then the quality of surgical access is improved, but the complexity of pathway selection increases
Solution Approach 1:
A computer system acts as an intermediary between the surgeon and the complex anatomy, automatically determining and ranking surgical pathways based on patient-specific imaging data. The system processes multiple potential pathways and presents a ranked list, reducing the cognitive burden on the surgeon while maintaining access to comprehensive pathway options.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual process of evaluating multiple surgical pathways by human expertise alone is replaced with an automated computer-based system that calculates pathway characteristics, assesses collateral damage risks, and ranks approaches systematically. This substitution provides more consistent and comprehensive evaluation.
2Manufacturing precision
If traditional surgical pathway selection is used, then the simplicity of decision-making is maintained, but the precision of pathway selection deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system evaluates multiple quantitative parameters for each surgical pathway including pathway length, angulation relative to anatomical planes, and proximity to critical structures. By changing from qualitative to quantitative parameter assessment, the system achieves more precise and objective pathway selection and collateral damage prediction.
3Reliability
If comprehensive evaluation of all surgical pathways is performed, then the reliability of surgical outcome is improved, but the time required for surgical planning increases
Solution Approach 1:
The computer system performs preliminary evaluation and ranking of all potential surgical pathways before the surgeon makes the final selection. By pre-calculating pathway characteristics and rankings based on patient-specific anatomy, the system enables rapid decision-making during surgical planning while ensuring comprehensive evaluation has already been completed.
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein are methods and systems for selecting surgical approaches. One example method involves (1) receiving data indicating (a) one or more surgical target regions and (b) one or more surgical portals; (2) determining a plurality of surgical pathways; (3) determining a plurality of surgical approaches; (4) for each surgical approach in the plurality of surgical approaches, determining at least one approach characteristic, for each determined surgical pathway in the respective surgical approach, determining at least one pathway characteristic, and determining a surgical-approach ranking based on the determined at least one approach characteristic and the determined at least one pathway characteristic; (5) selecting a subset of the plurality of surgical approaches based on the determined surgical approach rankings; and (6) causing an output device to provide a representation of the selected subset of the plurality of surgical approaches.