Methods and systems for navigating to a target through a patient's bronchial tree are disclosed including a bronchoscope, a probe insertable into a working channel of the bronchoscope and including a location sensor, and a workstation in operative communication with the probe and the bronchoscope, the workstation including a user interface that guides a user through a navigation plan and is configured to present a central navigation view including a plurality of views configured for assisting the user in navigating the bronchoscope through central airways of the patient's bronchial tree toward the target, a peripheral navigation view including a plurality of views configured for assisting the user in navigating the probe through peripheral airways of the patient's bronchial tree to the target, and a target alignment view including a plurality of views configured for assisting the user in aligning a distal tip of the probe with the target.

A system and method enabling the receipt of image data of a patient, identification of one or more locations within the image data depicting symptoms of lung disease, analyzing airways and vasculature proximate the identified locations, planning a pathway to the one or more locations, navigating an extended working channel to one of the locations, identifying the direction of blood flow within vasculature serving the location, positioning a catheter proximate the location, and temporarily isolating a portion of the identified vasculature serving the location depicting symptoms of lung disease.

A nebulizing catheter for bronchial therapy includes a catheter having a sheath defining an interior space and an open tip. A nebulizer is positioned in the interior space and located adjacent the open tip. The nebulizer includes a piezoelectric device. A liquid mixture is provided and placed in flow communication with the piezoelectric device for nebulizing a portion of that liquid mixture into small droplets for use in the bronchial therapy.

Systems, methods, and devices for facilitating insertion of an endotracheal tube and/or for verifying the position of the endotracheal tube within an airway of a patient with respect to an anatomical landmark of a patient are disclosed. Systems, methods, and devices for facilitating removal of debris from the distal airways of a patient under direct visualization are also disclosed.

Two system-level bronchoscopy guidance solutions are presented. The first incorporates a global-registration algorithm to provide the physician with updated navigational and guidance information during bronchoscopy. The system can handle general navigation to a region of interest (ROI), as well as adverse events, and it requires minimal commands so that it can be directly controlled by the physician. The second solution visualizes the global picture of all the bifurcations and their relative orientations in advance and suggests the maneuvers needed by the bronchoscope to approach the ROI. Guided bronchoscopy results using human airway-tree phantoms demonstrate the potential of the two solutions.

A method of confirming the location of a target tissue within a patient using a navigation system is provided. The navigation system displays images from a pre-acquired image dataset and provides location information of a medical device within a patient in relation to a patient tracking device affixed to the patient. The method includes determining an initial location of the target tissue, navigating a steerable catheter through the airway of the patient to a position proximate the initial location, tracking the location of the steerable catheter in the airway using the navigation system, generating information regarding the presence of the target tissue using a tissue sensing device inserted into the steerable catheter, and determining a confirmed location of the target tissue in relation to the patient tracking device using the generated information regarding the presence of the target tissue and the tracked location of the steerable catheter.

An endoscope system for delivering a fluid to a patient and retrieving for diagnostic purposes from the patient a specimen. The system includes an endoscope, a fluid container containing a fluid, and a first specimen container for receiving a specimen. The endoscope system has a first user selectable state and a second user selectable state, where the endoscope system in the first user selectable state is configured to automatically deliver the fluid from the fluid container to the patient and in the second user selectable state is configured to automatically retrieve a specimen from the patient and provide the specimen to the first specimen container.

A surgical computing system may receive usage data associated with movement of a surgical instrument and user inputs to the surgical instrument. The surgical computing system may receive motion and biomarker sensor data from sensing systems applied to the operator of the surgical instrument. The surgical computing system may determine, based on at least one of the usage data and/or the sensor data, an evaluation of the actions of the operator of the surgical instrument. The surgical computing system may determine, based on the evaluation, to provide feedback. The feedback may comprise instructions for the surgical instrument to provide haptic feedback and/or to modify its configuration. The feedback may comprise instructions for a display unit to present notifications instructing the healthcare professional. The surgical computing system may communicate instructions for providing the feedback to the surgical instrument and/or the display unit.

A needle apparatus having a sheath with a protective hypotube insert and a method of making the needle sheath. An example needle apparatus includes a handle, a needle having a proximal end connected to the handle and a sheath. The sheath is configured to receive of the needle. The sheath includes a proximal end connected to the handle, a distal end, a lumen and the protective insert. The lumen passes from the proximal end to the distal end of the sheath. The protective insert is received within the lumen at the distal end of the sheath when force and/or heat are applied.

The present invention relates to an apparatus (10) for designing or configuring a guide for a bronchoscope or guiding sheath. It is described to providing (310) a processing unit with at least one diagnostic image of a patient, wherein the at least one diagnostic image comprises image data of a region of interest and image data of the bronchial tree or vascular system in the vicinity of the region of interest. The processing unit determines (320) a position of the region of interest. The processing unit determines (330) a position in the bronchial tree or vascular system from which an intervention is to be carried out via a bronchoscope or guiding sheath. The intervention will comprise movement of a part of an intervention device towards the region of interest, wherein the bronchoscope or guiding sheath is configured such that the part of the intervention device can exit an end of the bronchoscope or guiding sheath. The processing unit determines (340) an angle of movement of the part of the intervention device with respect to a longitudinal axis of the bronchoscope or guiding sheath to guide the part of the intervention device towards the region of interest. The determination comprises utilization of the position of the region of interest and the position in the bronchial tree or vascular system from which the intervention is to be carried out. The processing unit designs (350) or configures (360) a guide to operate in conjunction with the bronchoscope or guiding sheath, the design or configuration comprising utilization of the determined angle of movement of the part of the intervention device. The guide is configured to operate in conjunction with the bronchoscope or guiding sheath to guide the part of the intervention device exiting the end of the bronchoscope or guiding sheath towards the region of interest at the determined angle of movement.