Navigational software for accurate single-viewpoint surgical tool placement during image-guided surgeries.

Image-guided surgeries use two-dimensional, tri-planar displays that simultaneously show three distinct orthogonal viewpoints of the surgical field. However, visual interpretation of these 2D, tri-planar displays requires significant practice. The surgical tools’ interaction with the display is unintuitive and unreflective of the surgeon’s perspective.

University of Utah researchers have developed a surgical tool tracker and software that facilitates image-guided surgery by presenting a three-dimensional view of the surgical target from a single viewpoint. The display guides the surgeon to the surgical target using translational and rotational arrow cues (TRAC). The TRAC system shows a single arrow to the surgeon at a time, to enable accurate placement of surgical tools. When the surgeon reaches the desired target, the object appears green, signaling correct placement of surgical tools. TRAC navigation can be integrated into existing image-guided or robotic surgical procedure monitors.

Pre-Clinical Validation

• Enables easy identification of surgical target.
• Facilitates accurate placement of surgical tools.
• Easy-to-follow, step-by-step arrow cues.

Usevitch, D. E., & Abbott, J. J. (2018). Translational and rotational arrow cues (TRAC) outperforms triplanar display for use in 6-DOF IGS navigation tasks. Hamlyn Symp. Medical Robotics, 104-105. doi: 10.31256/hsmr2018.54

Publication Number: US-2020-0035122-A1
Patent Title: Translational and Rotational Arrow Cues (TRAC) Navigation Method for Six-degree-of-freedom Manual Alignment Tasks
Jurisdiction/Country: United States
Application Type: Non-Provisional

Jonathan Tyler
801-587-0515
jonathan.tyler@utah.edu