Unmet Need
Robot-assisted procedures are becoming more common, from accounting for 1.8% of all general surgeries in 2012 to 15.1% in 2018. One of the most attractive features of surgical robotics is the ability to integrate preoperative and intra-operative images to provide more information for surgical planning and navigation. Specifically, for surgical navigation, or intraoperative surgical guidance, it is important to register the medical images so that corresponding points between the patient anatomy and images (e.g., CT scan) are aligned. However, current methods are only capable of registering a single rigid body. Thus, there is a need for a new method of image registration for multiple bodies, which will allow surgical navigation to be used for procedures like the reduction of multiple bone fragments.
Technology Overview
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a novel registration framework for registering multiple structures between volumetric (3D) and projection (2D) images using an adaptive template. In the example of image guided fracture reduction for pelvic trauma, the transformations of multiple bone fragments needed to restore bone morphology are computed preoperatively, and used to guide the reduction of the fragments using 3D-2D registration with respect to fluoroscopy and the preoperative CT. This method has been tested in simulation, phantom studies, and initial clinical studies, successfully demonstrating registration accuracy consistent with clinical requirements. This technology has broad implications for the surgical robotics field, allowing for the registration of fractured bone fragments, the registration of anatomy with multiple structures, like the spine, and registration of anatomical structures along with devices like surgical instruments.
Stage of Development
Preliminary clinical studies.
Patent
N/A
Publication
Han R et al. Fracture reduction planning and guidance in orthopaedic trauma surgery via multi-body image registration. Medical Image Analysis 68, 2021.
Han R et al. Multi-body 3D-2D registration for image-guided reduction of pelvic dislocation in orthopaedic trauma surgery. Physics in Medicine & Biology 65, 2020.
Han R et al. Multi-body registration for fracture reduction in orthopaedic trauma surgery. SPIE Medical Imaging, 2020.
