Visual orientation aid for medical instruments

• US 10,335,237 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2009
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brainlab AG
• Original Assignee: Brainlab AG
• Inventors: Christian, Georg, Maier, Christian, Lechner, Christian
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Patricia J
• Application Number:
  US12/412,398
• Publication Number:
  US 20090254098A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,749 Days
• Field of Search: 606130, 600424, 600425, 600426, 600427, 600431
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/17 Guides or aligning means for drills , mills, pins or wires
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/1721 for applying pins along or parallel to the axis of the femoral neck
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/102 Modelling of surgical devices, implants or prosthesis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/107 Visualisation of planned trajectories or target regions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2068 using pointers, e.g. pointers having reference marks for determining coordinates of body points
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/10 Computer-aided planning, simulation or modelling of surgical operations

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for visually assisting the alignment of a medical instrument, wherein the instrument is visually displayed on an image output in a positional relationship to a part of a patient'"'"'s body by means of a medical navigation system, wherein an orientation aid is displayed as a virtual model shape at the instrument or in a particular positioning with respect to a characteristic part of the instrument. It also relates to a planning method for optimized instrument alignment with the aid of such an image assisting method.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying, on an image output of a medical navigation system, a virtual representation of a medical instrument in a positional relationship to a part of a patient'"'"'s body, the virtual representation of the medical instrument having an axis and a tip; and

displaying, on the image output of the medical navigation system, an orientation aid situated at the tip of the virtual representation of the medical instrument, the orientation aid shaped as a cone having a symmetry axis coinciding with the axis of the visual representation of the medical instrument and a particular aperture angle based on a desired orientation of the medical instrument relative to a predefined axis of the part of the patient'"'"'s body, the particular aperture angle of the cone determining an exterior enveloping straight line of the cone, the exterior enveloping straight line of the cone abutting the predefined axis of the part of the patient'"'"'s body indicating that the medical instrument has the desired orientation.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein axes or planes or landmarks and/or landmark-like portions of the part of the patient'"'"'s body are visually displayed as auxiliary representations, with respect to which the virtual representation of the medical instrument and orientation aid can be and/or is aligned.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the virtual representation of the medical instrument can be altered, adapted or exchanged using settings on the navigation system and/or can be selected from a number of models.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the virtual representation of the medical instrument is a virtual representation of an operation aid.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the operation aid is an implant, a plate, a template or a guide.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the virtual representation of the medical instrument and the orientation aid are introduced into the image output of the medical navigation system as a projection.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the virtual representation of the medical instrument and the orientation aid are projected, in an adapted form, onto the image plane of the representation of the part of the patient'"'"'s body and visually displayed in the projection.

8. A method for planning an optimized instrument alignment using the image assisting method in accordance with claim 1, the method comprising:

using the virtual representation of the medical instrument and the orientation aid to serve as aids in aligning the medical instrument for use during a medical procedure.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program which, when running on a computer or loaded onto the computer, causes the computer to:

display, on an image output of an associated medical navigation system, a virtual representation of a medical instrument on an image output in a positional relationship to a part of a patient'"'"'s body, the virtual representation of the medical instrument having an axis and a tip; and

display, on the image output of the associated medical navigation system, an orientation aid situated at the tip of the virtual representation of the medical instrument, the orientation aid shaped as a cone having a symmetry axis coinciding with the axis of the visual representation of the medical instrument and a particular aperture angle based on a desired orientation of the medical instrument relative to a predefined axis of the part of the patient'"'"'s body, the particular aperture angle of the cone determining an exterior enveloping straight line of the cone, the exterior enveloping straight line of the cone abutting the predefined axis of the part of the patient'"'"'s body indicating that the medical instrument has the desired orientation.