Visual Enabling for Precision Surgery
by Klaus Kansy
The project 'Visual Enabling for Precision
Surgery' (VEP) will develop a computer-based 3D image guidance system for
neurosurgical interventions which are supported by an open magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) system from General Electric. Open MRI systems can generate
intra-operative images which give important feedback for the precise positioning
of surgical devices.
Image-guided surgery is a new medical discipline where different imaging
modalities like computed tomography (CT), MRI, ultrasound, etc. are used
not only for diagnosis but also for guiding a surgeon during the intervention.
For example, a physician can localize a brain tumor in MRI and plan the
best therapy and access way. Then, a computer system can be used to precisely
position the surgical instruments during the intervention. For interventions
into soft tissues like brain, geometrical data gathered from preoperative
images are corrupted by the intervention and have to be updated by real-time
measurements. Open MRI system provide such data during the intervention.
The surgeon needs good spatial and structural orientation to perform
his difficult task which is not readily provided by an unrelated set of
images of different quality and content. Therefore, the focal element of
the VEP project is a 3D reference scene realized as an augmented reality
system combining various types of medical data sets and synthetic images.
The physician will experience this surgical orientation environment (visual
enabling system) as a kind of interactive graphical 3D scene showing all
relevant data for the intended intervention. The design approach requires
close interdisciplinary co-operation among computer scientists, medical
physicists, and human factors specialists with radiologists, surgeons,
and other medical experts.
Figure: VEP window showing head with MRI cut, an survey image with surgical
device, and an editing window for interactively locating a tumor.
Technically, 3D and 2D data sets of various available imaging sources
have to be registered (ie, geometrically aligned) and integrated. During
the intervention, real-time measurements will update and complement these
data. Synthetic images of surgical devices and the planned access will
enhance the medical data. The system will be implemented using OpenGL on
workstations ranging from SGI Onyx down to PCs.
The VEP system is an example of a medical enabling system which can
be attached to new medical high-tech systems in order to make them intuitively
accessible for the average physician. Further information on the web at:
http://zeus.gmd.de/hci/projects/vep/vep.html
Please contact:
Gernoth Grunst - GMD
Tel: +49 2241 14 2346
E-mail: grunst@gmd.de
