Imaging system for endoscopic surgery
First Claim
1. A method of facilitating minimally invasive surgery on a patient;
- the method comprising;
a) forming at least one incision on said patient'"'"'s body to access a cavity within said patient'"'"'s body, said incision passing through a cavity wall;
b) inserting an instrument platform into said cavity through said incision;
said platform carrying a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers;
said transmitters and receivers emitting and receiving energy enabling said instrument to transmit image data collected intra-corporeally;
c) anchoring said platform to an interior surface of said cavity wall proximate said incision, with said plurality of transmitters and receivers having a field of view directed into said cavity and away from said interior surface on which said platform is anchored;
d) activating said transmitters to direct energy to structures within said cavity;
said receivers receiving energy reflected from the structures within said field of view of said receivers and transmitting intra-corporeal data indicative of the relative position of said structures to said computer;
said transmitted intra-corporeal data being chosen from the group consisting of optical lighting, thermal, ultrasonic, infrared, Doppler, x-ray, spectrographic, distance, and combinations thereof;
e) said computer altering the field of view of said receivers based on the intra-corporeal data received from said receivers as necessary to maintain said receivers in an aligned state as said cavity wall and said structures move or are moved relative to each other; and
f) converting said intra-corporeal data to a visual format enabling a surgeon to view said visual image of the cavity in real time.
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Abstract
An imaging system is provided for use with minimally invasive surgery. The imaging system comprises a platform which is anchored to a wall of a patient cavity. The platform comprises a plurality of transceivers which transmit energy toward the surgical site and receive reflected energy. The transceivers transmit rasterized image information to a computer which then displays the image information in real time, enabling a surgeon to view the surgical site on a display device. The transceivers can transmit and receive different types of energy, and the computer can then combine image information from the various different energy types to provide overlaid images of the surgical site. In addition, the computer controls the relative positions of the transceivers so that the images provided to the surgeon will not be affected by movement of the platform or by movement of structures (i.e., organs) at the surgical site.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method of facilitating minimally invasive surgery on a patient;
- the method comprising;
a) forming at least one incision on said patient'"'"'s body to access a cavity within said patient'"'"'s body, said incision passing through a cavity wall; b) inserting an instrument platform into said cavity through said incision;
said platform carrying a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers;
said transmitters and receivers emitting and receiving energy enabling said instrument to transmit image data collected intra-corporeally;c) anchoring said platform to an interior surface of said cavity wall proximate said incision, with said plurality of transmitters and receivers having a field of view directed into said cavity and away from said interior surface on which said platform is anchored; d) activating said transmitters to direct energy to structures within said cavity;
said receivers receiving energy reflected from the structures within said field of view of said receivers and transmitting intra-corporeal data indicative of the relative position of said structures to said computer;
said transmitted intra-corporeal data being chosen from the group consisting of optical lighting, thermal, ultrasonic, infrared, Doppler, x-ray, spectrographic, distance, and combinations thereof;e) said computer altering the field of view of said receivers based on the intra-corporeal data received from said receivers as necessary to maintain said receivers in an aligned state as said cavity wall and said structures move or are moved relative to each other; and f) converting said intra-corporeal data to a visual format enabling a surgeon to view said visual image of the cavity in real time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
- the method comprising;
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8. A method of facilitating minimally invasive surgery on a patient;
- the method comprising;
a) forming at least one incision on a patient'"'"'s body to access a cavity of said patient'"'"'s body, said incision passing through a cavity wall; b) inserting an instrument platform into said cavity;
said platform carrying a plurality of cameras and at least one light source;
said cameras being in communication with a computing device;
said cameras being movably mounted to said platform, the position of said cameras being controlled by said computer;c) anchoring said platform to an interior surface of said cavity wall proximate said incision with each of said cameras having a field of view directed into said cavity and away from said interior surface onto which said platform is anchored; d) said cameras transmitting optical image data to said computing device; e) displaying said image data in real time on a display; f) altering a field of view of said cameras based on the image data received from said cameras as necessary to maintain image data from said cameras in an aligned state as said cavity wall and said structures move or are moved relative to each other g) said computing device altering the position of said cameras based instructions received by an operator;
whereby the field of view of the cameras can be made to be parallel, perpendicular, or overlapping. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
- the method comprising;
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13. An imaging system for providing practitioners with an image of a surgical site within a patient'"'"'s body cavity during minimally invasive surgery;
- said imaging system comprising;
a) a plurality of sensors and transmitters adapted to be anchored to a wall of said body cavity;
said transmitters being operable to emit a selected form of energy towards the surgical site;
said energy being chosen from one or more of the following;
optical, thermal, ultrasonic, infrared, Doppler, spectrographic, distance, and combinations thereof;
said plurality of sensors comprising laser sensors which detect laser energy and energy sensors which energy transmitted by said transmitters; and
said energy sensors adapted to receive reflected energy from within an associated field of view of the surgical site;
said energy sensors configured to transmit data representative of intra-corporeal images of the received reflected energy from within the associated field of view;
said data being chosen from one or more of the following;
optical information, thermal information, ultrasonic information, infrared information, Doppler information, spectrographic information, distance information, and combinations thereof;b) a plurality of lasers operable to direct associated laser beams towards the surgical site;
said laser sensors configured to detect laser energy reflected from the surgical site within said associated fields of view;c) a means for converting the transmitted data from the laser and energy sensors into image data; d) a means for comparing the image data from two or more laser sensors having at least partially overlapping fields of view to identify detected laser energy within said image data to align the image data to produce a single unified image representative of said surgical site within the associated partially overlapping fields of view; and e) means to maintain the lasers in relative position to each other. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
- said imaging system comprising;
Specification