Surgical Navigation System

• US 20120078236A1
• Filed: 09/29/2010
• Published: 03/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stryker European Operations Holdings, LLC (Stryker Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Stryker Leibinger GmbH & Co. KG (Stryker Corporation)
• Inventors: Schoepp, Hans
• Granted Patent: US 8,657,809 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 606/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/0023 disposable
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00738 part of the tool being offset with respect to a main axis, e.g. for better view for the surgeon
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2055 Optical tracking systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2057 Details of tracking cameras
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/207 Divots for calibration
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2072 Reference field transducer attached to an instrument or patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/364 Correlation of different images or relation of image positions in respect to the body
• 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 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 90/361 Image-producing devices, e.g. surgical cameras
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/50 Supports for surgical instruments, e.g. articulated arms

Abstract

A surgical navigation system is disclosed including a camera that is fixedly attached to a patient. The camera space merges with the patient space and thereby eliminates the need for a separate patient tracker. The surgical navigation system calculates the position of a surgical tool with a tracking device in view of the camera and shows on a display device the position of the surgical tool with respect to the patient superimposed and in correlation with a scan image of the patient.

Claims

1. A surgical navigation system comprising:

a camera including means for attaching the camera in a fixed position to a patient;

a surgical tool including a tracking element readable by the camera;

a computer processing unit comprising means for recognizing the tracking element in an image obtained by the camera and means for tracking the position of the surgical tool;

a communication link adapted to transmit images from the camera to the computerized processing unit.

2. The surgical navigation system of claim 1, wherein the means for attaching comprises an adhesive.

3. The surgical navigation system of claim 2, wherein the means for attaching comprises a resilient base plate, wherein the camera is disposed on one side of the base plate and the adhesive is disposed on an opposite side of the base plate.

4. The surgical navigation system of claim 1, wherein the means for attaching comprises a pin adapted to attach the camera to a bony structure.

5. The surgical navigation system of claim 1, wherein the camera further comprises one or more fiducial markers sufficient to define a position of the camera, wherein the fiducial markers are disposed in a known pre-defined spatial relationship with respect to the camera, and wherein the computer processing unit further comprises means for registering the position of the camera from the position of the fiducial markers with an image of a patient.

6. The surgical navigation system of claim 5, wherein the camera has a completely known optical geometry.

7. The surgical navigation system of claim 1, wherein the surgical navigation system comprises a second camera associated with the means for attaching the camera in a fixed position to the patient and in communication with the computer processing unit.

8. The surgical navigation system of claim 1, wherein the tracking element comprises an optical pattern from which the means for recognizing can identify the surgical tool and calculate the position of the surgical tool.

9. The surgical navigation system of claim 8, wherein the optical pattern comprises a localization pattern and an identification pattern.

10. The surgical navigation system of claim 9, further comprising a second surgical tool including a second tracking element, wherein the second tracking element comprises the localization pattern and a different second identification pattern.

11. The surgical navigation system of claim 1, wherein the means for tracking is adapted to track the position of the surgical tool with respect to a patient by directly concatenating a positional vector from the surgical tool to the camera without concatenating a positional vector from a camera to a separate patient tracker.

12. A surgical navigation camera comprising:

a camera having a known focus; and

means for attaching the camera in a fixed position to a patient.

13. The surgical navigation camera of claim 12, further comprising:

fiducial markers associated in a fixed pre-defined position with respect to the camera.

14. The surgical navigation camera of claim 13, wherein the camera has a fixed focus.

15. The surgical navigation camera of claim 13, wherein the fiducial markers are disposed on a body of the camera.

16. The surgical navigation camera of claim 13, wherein the fiducial markers are disposed on the means for attaching.

17. The surgical navigation camera of claim 16, wherein the means for attaching comprises a resilient base plate fixedly attached to the camera and adhesive on the base plate.

18. The surgical navigation camera of claim 12, wherein the means for attaching comprises pins adapted to be attached to the base plate and inserted into bone of the patient.

19. The surgical navigation camera of claim 12, wherein the camera includes a validation and calibration feature in a known position in relation to the focus.

20. A method of tracking a surgical tool with respect to a patient, the method comprising the steps:

attaching a camera to the patient in a fixed position;

tracking a position of the surgical tool in relation to the patient using pictures taken by the camera and a computerized navigation system.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step:

displaying on a display device the position of the surgical tool with respect to the patient superimposed and in correlation with a scan image of the patient.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the scan image includes an image of the camera on the patient, the method further comprising the step:

automatically registering a position of the camera with the scan image of the patient from the image of the camera and a database of form factor information about the camera.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising the steps:

registering a position of the camera with a scan image of the patient;

validating the surgical tool; and

optionally calibrating the surgical tool.