Sensing and avoiding surgical equipment

• US 9,486,128 B1
• Filed: 10/03/2014
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verily Life Sciences LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hannaford, Blake, Rephaeli, Eden, Wang, Chia-Jean
• Primary Examiner(s): Hammond, Ellen C
• Assistant Examiner(s): BRAY, STUART SAMUEL
• Application Number:
  US14/506,335
• Time in Patent Office: 767 Days
• Field of Search: 600/473, 600/314
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/063 for monochromatic or narrow-band illumination
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/20 using laser
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00577 Ablation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00595 Cauterization
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00785 Reflected power
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00904 Automatic detection of target tissue
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3937 Visible markers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/05 Surgical care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0071 by measuring fluorescence emission
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0075 by spectroscopy, i.e. measuring spectra, e.g. Raman spectroscopy, infrared absorption spectroscopy A61B5/0071 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/061 Determining position of a probe within the body employing means separate from the probe, e.g. sensing internal probe position employing impedance electrodes on the surface of the body A61B1/00158 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/30 Devices for illuminating a surgical field, the devices having an interrelation with other surgical devices or with a surgical procedure

Abstract

A surgical imaging system includes a light source configured to illuminate a portion of a surgical environment and a light sensor configured to receive light from the illuminated portion in response to the illumination. The surgical imaging system determines spectrographic content of the received light and uses the determined spectrographic content to identify the illuminated portion of the surgical environment; for example, to determine that the portion contains a surgical instrument, a foreign body, a suture, a particular type of tissue, a blood vessel, and/or a fluorescent marker. This identification of the illuminated portion of the surgical environment could be used to implement a surgical intervention. For example, a surgical laser could be operated, based on such generated identification information, to ablate cancerous tissue in the surgical environment that is marked with a fluorophore while avoiding ablating any sutures or surgical instruments disposed in the surgical environment.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a light source;

a detector;

a surgical laser; and

a controller operatively coupled to the light source, the detector, and the surgical laser, wherein the controller comprises a computing device programmed to perform operations comprising;

controlling the light source to illuminate a portion of a surgical environment, wherein the surgical environment comprises a tissue subject to a surgical intervention involving one or more surgical instruments;

controlling the detector to obtain a spectrographic content of light received by the detector from the illuminated portion of the surgical environment;

determining whether the illuminated portion of the surgical environment contains a portion of a non-biological foreign body based on the spectrographic content of the received light; and

in response to a determination that the illuminated portion of the surgical environment contains a portion of a non-biological foreign body, controlling the surgical laser to avoid interaction with the illuminated portion of the surgical environment.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

controlling the light source to illuminate a calibration object; and

controlling the detector to obtain a calibration spectrum of light received by the detector from the calibration object being illuminated by the light source,

wherein determining whether the illuminated portion of the surgical environment contains a portion of a non-biological foreign body based on the spectrographic content of the received light comprises comparing the spectrographic content of the received light to the calibration spectrum.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein determining whether the illuminated portion of the surgical environment contains a non-biological foreign body based on the spectrographic content of the received light comprises identifying a particular non-biological foreign body in the illuminated portion of the surgical environment based on the spectrographic content of the received light.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise:

classifying the particular non-biological foreign body as a particular type of non-biological foreign body based on the spectrographic content of the received light.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the light source is a laser that emits light at a fixed wavelength.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the fixed wavelength is an excitation wavelength of a fluorophore, wherein the fluorophore emits light at an emission wavelength in response to receiving light at the excitation wavelength, and wherein the spectrographic content of the light received from the illuminated portion of the surgical environment includes an intensity of received light at the emission wavelength.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an optical system that focuses the light from the light source to a spot within the surgical environment,

wherein controlling the light source to illuminate the portion of the surgical environment comprises controlling a location of the spot within the surgical environment.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an optical system that focuses light from the light source to a line within the surgical environment,

wherein controlling the light source to illuminate the portion of the surgical environment comprises controlling a location of the line within the surgical environment.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the light source is a tunable laser controllable to emit light at any of a plurality of different wavelengths, wherein controlling the light source to illuminate the portion of the surgical environment comprises controlling the tunable laser to illuminate the portion of the surgical environment at each of the different wavelengths, and wherein the spectrographic content of the light received from the illuminated portion of the surgical environment includes a respective intensity of received light at each of the different wavelengths.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a target tissue in the illuminated portion of the surgical environment based on the spectrographic content of the light received from the illuminated portion of the surgical environment; and

controlling the surgical laser to emit light to the target tissue in response to identifying the target tissue in the illuminated portion of the surgical environment.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

controlling the light source to illuminate a plurality of additional portions of the surgical environment;

controlling the detector to obtain a respective spectrographic content of light received by the detector from each of the additional portions of the surgical environment illuminated by the light source; and

for each of the additional portions of the surgical environment, determining whether the additional portion of the surgical environment contains a portion of a non-biological foreign body based on the respective spectrographic content of the additional portion.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-biological foreign body is a surgical instrument, fiducial, screw, staple, or suture.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-biological foreign body is an object introduced by the surgical intervention.