Ultrasound guided spine needle insertion

An ultrasound (US) guided, CT augmented, spine needle insertion navigational system is introduced. The system consists of an electromagnetic (EM) sensor, an US machine, and a preoperative CT volume of the patient anatomy. Three-dimensional (3D) US volume is reconstructed intraoperatively from a set of two-dimensional (2D) freehand US slices, and is coregistered with the preoperative CT. This allows the preoperative CT volume to be used in the intraoperative clinical coordinate. The spatial relationship between the patient anatomy, surgical tools, and the US transducer are tracked using the EM sensor, and are displayed with respect to the CT volume. The pose of the US transducer is used to interpolate the CT volume, providing the physician with a 2D "x-ray vision" to guide the needle insertion. Many of the system software components are GPU-accelerated, allowing real-time performance of the guidance system in a clinical setting.