The Liver Tumor Segmentation Benchmark (LiTS).

In this work, we report the set-up and results of the Liver Tumor Segmentation Benchmark (LiTS), which was organized in conjunction with the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) 2017 and the International Conferences on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) 2017 and 2018. The image dataset is diverse and contains primary and secondary tumors with varied sizes and appearances with various lesion-to-background levels (hyper-/hypo-dense), created in collaboration with seven hospitals and research institutions. Seventy-five submitted liver and liver tumor segmentation algorithms were trained on a set of 131 computed tomography (CT) volumes and were tested on 70 unseen test images acquired from different patients.

Feasibility and clinical value of virtual reality for deep infiltrating pelvic endometriosis: A case report.

Deep infiltrating pelvic endometriosis and its surgical management is associated with a risk of major postoperative complications. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is recommended preoperatively in order to obtain the most precise mapping of the extent of endometriotic lesions. The aim of this work was to assess the feasibility and clinical interest of 3D modeling by surface rendering as a preoperative planning tool in a patient with deep infiltrating pelvic endometriosis.

3D spatial priors for semi-supervised organ segmentation with deep convolutional neural networks.

Purpose: Fully Convolutional neural Networks (FCNs) are the most popular models for medical image segmentation. However, they do not explicitly integrate spatial organ positions, which can be crucial for proper labeling in challenging contexts.

Methods: In this work, we propose a method that combines a model representing prior probabilities of an organ position in 3D with visual FCN predictions by means of a generalized prior-driven prediction function.

Iterative confidence relabeling with deep ConvNets for organ segmentation with partial labels.

Training deep ConvNets requires large labeled datasets. However, collecting pixel-level labels for medical image segmentation is very expensive and requires a high level of expertise. In addition, most existing segmentation masks provided by clinical experts focus on specific anatomical structures.

A novel, automated, quantification of abnormal lung parenchyma in patients with COVID-19 infection: Initial description of feasibility and association with clinical outcome.

Objective: Ground-glass opacities are the most frequent radiologic features of COVID-19 patients. We aimed to determine the feasibility of automated lung volume measurements, including ground-glass volumes, on the CT of suspected COVID-19 patients. Our goal was to create an automated and quantitative measure of ground-glass opacities from lung CT images that could be used clinically for diagnosis, triage and research.

3D imaging and urology: Why 3D reconstruction will be mandatory before performing surgery.

We relate a single-center experience in virtual surgical planning to demonstrate interests and perspectives in pediatric urology. METHOD: From 2004 to April 2017, 4 patients were analyzed before intervention at our institution. All patients had undergone a low dose CT scan.

Virtual and Augmented Reality in Oncologic Liver Surgery.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in complex surgery are evolving technologies enabling improved preoperative planning and intraoperative navigation. The basis of these technologies is a computer-based generation of a patient-specific 3-dimensional model from Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data. This article provides a state-of-the- art overview on the clinical use of this technology with a specific focus on hepatic surgery.

A New Software Suite in Orthognathic Surgery : Patient Specific Modeling, Simulation and Navigation.

Orthognathic surgery belongs to the scope of maxillofacial surgery. It treats dentofacial deformities consisting in discrepancy between the facial bones (upper and lower jaws). Such impairment affects chewing, talking, and breathing and can ultimately result in the loss of teeth.

Live Tracking and Dense Reconstruction for Handheld Monocular Endoscopy.

Contemporary endoscopic simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) methods accurately compute endoscope poses; however, they only provide a sparse 3-D reconstruction that poorly describes the surgical scene. We propose a novel dense SLAM method whose qualities are: 1) monocular, requiring only RGB images of a handheld monocular endoscope; 2) fast, providing endoscope positional tracking and 3-D scene reconstruction, running in parallel threads; 3) dense, yielding an accurate dense reconstruction; 4) robust, to the severe illumination changes, poor texture and small deformations that are typical in endoscopy; and 5) self-contained, without needing any fiducials nor external tracking devices and, therefore, it can be smoothly integrated into the surgical workflow. It works as follows.

The anatomical configuration of the splenic artery influences suprapancreatic lymph node dissection in laparoscopic gastrectomy: analysis using a 3D volume rendering program.

Background: The aim of this study is to categorize splenic artery and vein configurations, and examine their influence on suprapancreatic lymph node (LN) dissection in laparoscopic gastrectomy.

Methods: Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine images from 169 advanced cancer patients who underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy with D2 dissection were used to reconstruct perigastric vessels in 3D using a volume rendering program (VP Planning). Splenic artery and vein configuration were classified depending on the relative position of their lowest part in regard to the pancreas.

Prospective Evaluation of Precision Multimodal Gallbladder Surgery Navigation: Virtual Reality, Near-infrared Fluorescence, and X-ray-based Intraoperative Cholangiography.

Objective: We aimed to prospectively evaluate NIR-C, VR-AR, and x-ray intraoperative cholangiography (IOC) during robotic cholecystectomy.

Background: Near-infrared cholangiography (NIR-C) provides real-time, radiation-free biliary anatomy enhancement. Three-dimensional virtual reality (VR) biliary anatomy models can be obtained via software manipulation of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography, enabling preoperative VR exploration, and intraoperative augmented reality (AR) navigation.

Numerical simulation and identification of macroscopic vascularised liver behaviour: Case of indentation tests.

Mini-invasive surgery restricts the surgeon information to two-dimensional digital representation without the corresponding physical information obtained in previous open surgery. To overcome these drawbacks, real time augmented reality interfaces including the true mechanical behaviour of organs depending on their internal microstructure need to be developed. For the case of tumour resection, we present here a finite element numerical study of the liver mechanical behaviour including the effects of its own vascularisation through numerical indentation tests in order extract the corresponding macroscopic behaviour.

Comprehensive preclinical evaluation of a multi-physics model of liver tumor radiofrequency ablation.

Purpose: We aim at developing a framework for the validation of a subject-specific multi-physics model of liver tumor radiofrequency ablation (RFA).

Methods: The RFA computation becomes subject specific after several levels of personalization: geometrical and biophysical (hemodynamics, heat transfer and an extended cellular necrosis model). We present a comprehensive experimental setup combining multimodal, pre- and postoperative anatomical and functional images, as well as the interventional monitoring of intra-operative signals: the temperature and delivered power.

Report on First International Workshop on Robotic Surgery in Thoracic Oncology.

A workshop of experts from France, Germany, Italy, and the United States took place at Humanitas Research Hospital Milan, Italy, on February 10 and 11, 2016, to examine techniques for and applications of robotic surgery to thoracic oncology. The main topics of presentation and discussion were robotic surgery for lung resection; robot-assisted thymectomy; minimally invasive surgery for esophageal cancer; new developments in computer-assisted surgery and medical applications of robots; the challenge of costs; and future clinical research in robotic thoracic surgery. The following article summarizes the main contributions to the workshop.

Superselective intra-arterial hepatic injection of indocyanine green (ICG) for fluorescence image-guided segmental positive staining: experimental proof of the concept.

Background: Intraoperative liver segmentation can be obtained by means of percutaneous intra-portal injection of a fluorophore and illumination with a near-infrared light source. However, the percutaneous approach is challenging in the minimally invasive setting. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of fluorescence liver segmentation by superselective intra-hepatic arterial injection of indocyanine green (ICG).

On-patient see-through augmented reality based on visual SLAM.

Purpose: An augmented reality system to visualize a 3D preoperative anatomical model on intra-operative patient is proposed. The hardware requirement is commercial tablet-PC equipped with a camera. Thus, no external tracking device nor artificial landmarks on the patient are required.

Automatic localization of endoscope in intraoperative CT image: A simple approach to augmented reality guidance in laparoscopic surgery.

The use of augmented reality in minimally invasive surgery has been the subject of much research for more than a decade. The endoscopic view of the surgical scene is typically augmented with a 3D model extracted from a preoperative acquisition. However, the organs of interest often present major changes in shape and location because of the pneumoperitoneum and patient displacement.

Interoperative Biopsy Site Relocalization in Endoluminal Surgery.

Barrett's oesophagus, a premalignant condition of the oesophagus has been on a rise in the recent years. The standard diagnostic protocol for Barrett's involves obtaining biopsies at suspicious regions along the oesophagus. The localization and tracking of these biopsy sites "interoperatively" poses a significant challenge for providing targeted treatments and tracking disease progression.