Surgical Navigation Phantom for Positional and Angular Error Determination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Surgical navigation systems face challenges in accurately tracking instruments during minimally invasive procedures, particularly in port-based surgery, where the system's ability to determine positional and angular errors is crucial for precise instrument placement within the patient's anatomy.
Innovation Solution
A kit and method utilizing a phantom that models a mammalian head with touch points and apertures, allowing an elongate tool with fiducials to be tracked by the navigation system, enabling the determination of positional and angular errors by comparing estimated tool positions and trajectories with measured data from the phantom's geometry.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If surgical navigation systems use external hardware tracking devices (mechanical arms, radiofrequency or optical tracking devices), then the system can track instrument positions, but the measurement precision and reliability of tracking accuracy remain insufficient for minimally invasive procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the physical surgical environment by registering the phantom to pre-operative imaging data (CT or MRI scans). This virtual model allows the navigation system to track instrument positions relative to anatomical structures with high precision, resolving the contradiction between measurement precision and system reliability in minimally invasive procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary registration of the phantom to imaging data before the actual surgical procedure. This pre-establishment of the coordinate system and anatomical landmarks enables accurate tracking during the procedure, improving both measurement precision and reliability without requiring complex real-time hardware adjustments.
2Ease of manufacture
If port-based surgery is used to access surgical regions, then minimally invasive treatment is achieved, but the ability to accurately track and determine instrument position and angle becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a phantom as an intermediary object that bridges the gap between the limited visual access in port-based surgery and the need for accurate instrument tracking. The phantom provides known geometric references (apertures and touch points) that the navigation system can use to calculate precise instrument positions and angles despite the restrictive surgical access.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from two-dimensional visual assessment through the port to three-dimensional spatial tracking by using the phantom's known geometry in 3D space. This dimensional enhancement allows accurate determination of instrument position, orientation, and trajectory that cannot be achieved through direct visual inspection alone.
3Loss of information
If fiducials are attached to the elongate tool for tracking, then the navigation system can determine tool position, but the complexity of the tracking system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The phantom serves multiple functions: it acts as a registration object for establishing the coordinate system, provides known geometric references for tracking calibration, and enables verification of instrument position and orientation. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate complex tracking components, thereby reducing overall system complexity while maintaining complete tracking information.
Data Source
AI summary
A phantom to determine navigational error in a surgical navigation system that tracks the location of an elongate tool having a tip and a shaft based on a plurality of fiducials attached to the elongate tool. The phantom includes a base portion that models a lower portion of a mammalian head and having a top surface with a plurality of touch points, each of the touch points being a respective indentation, and a frame detachably securable to the base portion and having an upper portion spaced apart from the top surface, the upper portion having defined therein a plurality of apertures. A tip of the elongate tool is to be inserted through said one of the apertures and in one of the touch points, and the surgical navigation system determines positional and angular error.