Method for precision planning, guidance, and placement of probes within a body

Inventors

Cohn, William • Garbin, Nicolo • Kamaric, Emir • Kuhn, Matthew • PATEL, Ravi

Assignees

Ethicon Inc

Abstract

A method for navigating a probe to a location within a body of a patient, the method comprising visualizing a three-dimensional image of a region of a body of a patient; receiving a selection of a target location within said three-dimensional image of a region of a patient's body; determining and visualizing a preferred pathway for the probe to follow from an external entry point on the patient's body to the target location; visualizing the preferred pathway for the probe simultaneously with an indication of the current actual position of the probe in real time such that the simultaneous visualizations enables a user to align the current actual position of the probe with the preferred pathway; and updating and visualizing an indication of the current actual position of the probe in real time as the probe is advanced to the target location.

Core Innovation

The invention provides a method for navigating a probe to a location within a body of a patient by visualizing a three-dimensional image of a region of the body and receiving a selection of a target location within the three-dimensional image. A preferred pathway for the probe is determined from an external entry point on the patient's body to the target location by rotating the three-dimensional image, obtaining vector information of a viewing plane, determining a select body orientation to provide line-of-sight of the target location, obtaining spatial information of the target location with respect to the viewing plane, and determining a line in space representing at least a portion of the preferred pathway.

The three-dimensional image is registered to a current actual position of a corresponding region of the patient's body, and the current actual position of the probe is registered to the three-dimensional image and the current actual position of the patient's body. The preferred pathway is visualized simultaneously with an indication of the current actual position of the probe in real time such that simultaneous visualization enables a user to align the current actual position of the probe with the preferred pathway, and the indication is updated and visualized in real time as the probe is advanced to the target location.

The invention configures the preferred pathway to minimize interference with radiating energy from one or more additional probes by automatically calculating one or more of a number of the additional probes, a respective positioning of the additional probes, or trajectories of the additional probes in a surrounding environment of the visualized preferred pathway. Tissue shrinkage is accounted for using predictive analytics to account for tissue shrinkage of the target due to energy exposure, with visualization and updating tied to real-time imaging and registration, including compensation for anatomical shift.

Claims Coverage

The document contains three independent claims. They share core elements of three-dimensional imaging, target selection, preferred pathway or trajectory computation using viewing-plane geometry, registration to real positions, and real-time visualization and alignment, with additional features focused on minimizing interference from additional probes and accounting for tissue shrinkage via predictive analytics.

Across the independent claims, the invention combines viewing-plane geometry to compute a preferred probe pathway, registration to real positions with simultaneous real-time visualization for alignment, automatic computation of additional-probe configurations to minimize interference with radiating energy, and predictive analytics to account for tissue shrinkage due to energy exposure.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications