Apparatus for Navigation and for Fusion of Ecographic and Volumetric Images of a Patient Which Uses a Combination of Active and Passive Optical Markers
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Abstract
The invention concerns an apparatus for fusion and navigation of ecographic and volumetric images of a patient (1) and for localization of an ecographic probe (2) connected with an ecographer (7) and/or of a surgical instrument (3) operating on the same patient. The unit comprises a plurality of passive (3) active optical markers (4) positionable on the body of the patient and a plurality of active optical markers (5, 6) located on the ecographic probe and/or on the surgical instrument, sensors of optical signal (8) provided with devices (9) for activation of said passive markers, which sensors (8) are suitable for reception of optical signals produced by reflection of said passive markers and/or coming from said active markers, a turning on device (11) for said active markers and said devices for the activation of the passive markers, a movement analysis device (10) suitable to process the signals emitted by said sensors (8) as a function of the optical signals received in order to obtain from them the coordinates of said markers, a decoding device (12) suitable to distinguish the coordinates of the active markers from the ones of the passive markers, a data processing device (13) for localization of the ecographic probe (2) and/or the surgical instrument (3) and for definition of the movement of the patient, a device (14) for acquisition of the ecographic images in synchronism with the position of the ecographic probe (2) and/or the surgical instrument (3) and a device (15) for fusion and the navigation of the ecographic images with volumetric images coming from other systems (16) for acquisition of images.
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29 Claims
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1-14. -14. (canceled)
- 15. Apparatus for fusion of ecographic and volumetric images of a patient (1) and for navigation and localization of an ecographic probe (2) and a surgical instrument (3) operating on the same patient, comprising a plurality of passive optical markers (4) positionable on the body of the patient and a plurality of active optical markers (5, 6) located on the ecographic probe and on the surgical instrument, sensors of optical signals (8) provided with devices (9) for activation of said passive markers, said sensors (8) being suitable to reception of optical signals produced by reflection of said passive markers and/or coming from said active markers, a turning on device (11) for said active markers and said devices (9) for the activation of the passive markers, a movement analysis device (10) suitable to process the signals emitted by said sensors (8) as a function of optical signals being received in order to obtain from them the coordinates of said markers, a decoding device (12) suitable to distinguish the coordinates of the active markers from the ones of the passive markers, a data processing device (13) for localization of the ecographic probe (2) and the surgical instrument (3) and for definition of the movement of the patient, a device (14) for acquisition of the ecographic images in synchronism with the position of the ecographic probe (2) and of the surgical instrument (3) and a device (15) for fusion and navigation of the ecographic images with volumetric images coming from other systems (16) for acquisition of images, characterised in that said turning on device (11) control the turning on of the active markers and of the activation devices (9) as an alternative to each other.
Specification