Ultrasound Segmentation in Navigated Liver Surgery
Sylvain Anderegg, Matthias Peterhans, Stefan Weber · Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) · 2010
In computer assisted liver surgery, the use of pre-operative 3D computer tomography (CT) images provides basic orientation and valuable information about the patient liver. During the surgical intervention, the accuracy of this information is reduced by motion and deformation of the organ. The fusion of intraoperative ultrasound (US) imaging with the pre-operative data is the next step in order to improve this situation. As pre-requisite, the identification of corresponding structures in US and CT (such as blood vessels) is required. Within this paper, the integration of an ultrasound vessel segmentation algorithm in a navigation system for liver surgery is presented. Initial results obtained on patients undergoing liver resection are evaluated. 1 Problem Intra-operative ultrasound imaging is used during surgical interventions on the open liver, providing real-time information about the organ inner structure. Moreover, new tumors may be detected and the surgical intervention shall eventually be adapted on site. Within our navigation system for liver surgery [1], [2], surgeons are provided with the pre-operative 3D images, navigated US imaging and a set of optical trackers for the navigation of standard surgical tools. During the surgical intervention, the accuracy of the pre-operative images is reduced due to motions and deformations of the liver. Thus, updating the pre-operative images with the 3D information obtained from US imaging is an important step towards an increase of the navigation system accuracy.