The effects of real-time image navigation in operative liver surgery.

Purpose: In liver surgery, preoperative planning is usually performed by using CT scans. Ultrasonic probes are frequently used operatively to verify tissue deformations, for example when resecting a liver tumor with an ultrasonic dissector. Avoidance of dissecting vitally important hepatic vessels and the recrudescence of tumors are of crucial importance.

Risk analysis for intraoperative liver surgery.

Hepatic vessel structure is very important to ensure the blood supply of the liver tissue. Therefore the knowledge of the hepatic vessel system is indispensable in liver surgery planning, for example before performing a liver resection. The purpose of this paper is to present an easy to use and fast method concerning hepatic vessel segmentation and risk analysis, which is intended to be applicable in clinical routine.

Tracking of the liver for navigation in open surgery.

Purpose: A main task of navigation systems assisting a surgeon during an intervention is to determine the spatial position of instruments relative to the organ. In comparison to navigation of hard tissue, this is still a challenge for navigation in soft tissue. In this contribution a method is presented to measure the position and the deformation of the liver.

Three-dimensional printing creates models for surgical planning of aortic valve replacement after previous coronary bypass grafting.

Purpose: Resternotomy for aortic valve replacement in patients with previous coronary artery bypass grafting and an internal mammary artery graft may be a surgical problem. Thus, we are exploring the effect of using rapid prototyping techniques for surgical planning and intraoperative orientation during aortic valve replacement after previous coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

Description: As a proof of concept, we studied a patient who had undergone CABG 5 years earlier.

A beating heart model 3D printed from specific patient data.

In this article, a method for manufacturing of heart models is presented. These models are created from CT or MRI data and are patient specific. They are applied to surgical planning in cardiac surgery to obtain more information of the anatomical structure.

A system for analyzing intraoperative B-Mode ultrasound scans of the liver.

In this article, a system for automatic analysis of intraoperative B-Mode ultrasound images of the liver is presented. The system is part of an assistance system for open liver surgery. It supports 3D-ultrasound imaging and automatic segmentation of vessel structures in the intraoperative ultrasound images.

Manual registration of ultrasound with CT/planning data for hepatic surgery.

In this article an approach for assistance for soft tissue surgery through instrument navigation is presented. It can sufficiently be integrated into the clinical workflow. The presented methods are part of an assistance system for open liver surgery and supports surgeons during tumor resections or living donor liver transplantation.