Advanced Navigation and Augmented Visualization in Minimally Invasive Surgery

Abstract: Minimally invasive surgery offers advantages that make it the best choice for many diseases. The Virtual Reality technology gives a great support to this surgical procedure methods through medical image processing and visualization, 3D organ’s reconstruction and intraoperative surgical guidance. In this paper is presented an advanced visualization and navigation platform that permits the surgeon to have the possibility to visualize both the traditional patient information (the CT image dataset) and a 3D model of the patient’s anatomy obtained through the processing of these images. The platform permits two different visualization modalities that are available in real time and dynamically. According to the surgeon needs, it is possible to obtain the automatic reslicing of the orthogonal planes in order to have an accurate visualization exactly next to the actual position of the surgical instrument tip. In addition, it is possible to activate the clipping modality that allows cutting the 3D model in correspondence of a chosen visualization plane. The platform can be used as support for the diagnosis, for the surgical preoperative planning and also for an image-guided surgery.