Method for determining a position of an object utilizing and ultrasonic imaging device

• US 8,109,877 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2009
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stryker European Operations Holdings, LLC (Stryker Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Stryker Leibinger GmbH & Co. KG (Stryker Corporation)
• Inventors: Moctezuma de la Barrera, Jose Luis, Wu, Chunwu
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Tse
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHAO, ELMER M
• Application Number:
  US12/644,285
• Publication Number:
  US 20100099982A1
• Time in Patent Office: 777 Days
• Field of Search: 600437-461
• US Class Current: 600/438
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2051 Electromagnetic tracking systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2055 Optical tracking systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2072 Reference field transducer attached to an instrument or patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/378 using ultrasound
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3983 Reference marker arrangements for use with image guided surgery
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/20 Surgical navigation systems; Devices for tracking or guiding surgical instruments, e.g. for frameless stereotaxis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0841 for locating instruments
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/085 for locating body or organic structures, e.g. tumours, calculi, blood vessels, nodules
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/12 in body cavities or body tracts, e.g. by using catheters catheters per se A61M25/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4227 characterised by straps, belts, cuffs or braces
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4254 using sensors mounted on the probe
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4263 using sensors not mounted on the probe, e.g. mounted on an external reference frame
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4477 using several separate ultrasound transducers or probes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/461 Displaying means of special interest
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/481 involving the use of contrast agent, e.g. microbubbles introduced into the bloodstream analysis of echo signal exploiting properties of a contrast enhancer in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52039
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5223 for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/58 Testing, adjusting or calibrating the diagnostic device
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/36 Image-producing devices or illumination devices not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/39 Markers, e.g. radio-opaque or breast lesions markers
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/007 for contrast media

Abstract

A system is disclosed for determining a position and a change in the position of an anatomical structure. The system utilizes a surgical navigation system and a substrate that is capable of being removably mounted to an outer surface of a patient'"'"'s body. The substrate includes a sensor that is tracked by the surgical navigation system and an ultrasonic imaging device that determines the position of an anatomical structure relative to the sensor. The concatenation of the position of the sensor and the relative position of the anatomical structure allows a global position of the anatomical structure to be determined by a computer system and displayed to the user.

Claims

1. A method for determining a position and a change in the position of an anatomical structure using a surgical navigation system, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a surgical navigation system;

attaching a substrate in a removable manner to an outer surface of a body, the substrate having an associated sensor and having a positional device for determining a position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor, wherein the positional device includes an ultrasonic imaging device attached to the substrate, and wherein the body includes an anatomical structure spaced interiorly from the outer surface;

determining a position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor using the ultrasonic imaging device;

tracking the sensor with the surgical navigation system to determine a position of the sensor;

determining the global position of the anatomical structure by concatenating the position of the sensor and the position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor; and

displaying the position of the anatomical structure on a display unit,

wherein the positional device further includes a point source disposed adjacent the anatomical structure, and wherein the ultrasonic imaging device and the point source are utilized to determine a position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor,

wherein the ultrasonic imaging device comprises a plurality of receivers and the point source comprises a plurality of source transducers, and

further comprising the step of determining a position of each source transducer by activating one source transducer at a time to emit an ultrasonic beam and receiving each ultrasonic beam by the receivers.

2. A method for determining a position and a change in the position of an anatomical structure using a surgical navigation system, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a surgical navigation system;

attaching a substrate in a removable manner to an outer surface of a body, the substrate having an associated sensor and having a positional device for determining a position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor, wherein the positional device includes an ultrasonic imaging device attached to the substrate, and wherein the body includes an anatomical structure spaced interiorly from the outer surface;

determining a position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor using the ultrasonic imaging device;

tracking the sensor with the surgical navigation system to determine a position of the sensor;

determining the global position of the anatomical structure by concatenating the position of the sensor and the position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor;

displaying the position of the anatomical structure on a display unit;

moving the ultrasonic imaging device to create a plurality of differential distance maps of the anatomical structure;

correlating data from the plurality of differential distance maps to establish an arbitrary initial distance map; and

comparing the position of the anatomical structure to the arbitrary initial distance map to determine a change in the position of the anatomical structure.

3. A method for determining a position and a change in the position of an anatomical structure using a surgical navigation system, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a surgical navigation system;

attaching a substrate in a removable manner to an outer surface of a body, the substrate having an associated sensor and having a positional device for determining a position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor, wherein the positional device includes an ultrasonic imaging device attached to the substrate, and wherein the body includes an anatomical structure spaced interiorly from the outer surface;

determining a position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor using the ultrasonic imaging device;

tracking the sensor with the surgical navigation system to determine a position of the sensor;

determining the global position of the anatomical structure by concatenating the position of the sensor and the position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor; and

displaying the position of the anatomical structure on a display unit,

wherein the positional device further includes a point source disposed adjacent the anatomical structure, and wherein the ultrasonic imaging device and the point source are utilized to determine a position of the anatomical structure relative to the sensor,

wherein the ultrasonic imaging device comprises a plurality of ultrasound transducers and the point source is a sonic reflective point source, and

further comprising the step of determining a position of each point source by activating one transducer at a time to emit an ultrasonic beam and to receive each ultrasonic beam reflected by the point source.