The disclosed system uses medical imaging and live imaging on a patient’s non-rigid tissue structures and increases preciseness and reliability by shaping the patient’s body during surgery so that the outer shape of the patient’s body during surgery is identical to the outer shape of the body during imaging. The processing unit will precisely overlay a scan image (or an image or a graphical representation derived from several scan images) and a live image acquired during surgery for enhancing a surgeon’s understanding and orientation during surgery.

Tracking constellations for use with surgical instruments, and associated systems and methods, are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a tracking constellation includes (i) a support, (ii) a plurality of first standoffs extending from the support to a first height, and (iii) a plurality of second standoffs extending from the support to a second height different than the first height. The tracking constellation can further include a plurality of markers mounted to corresponding ones of the first standoffs or the second standoffs. The markers can lay in a common plane. The support can extend at a generally orthogonal angle to an instrument when the tracking constellation is coupled to the instrument such that the common plane is angled relative to the instrument.

The system for assisting a surgeon in the context of surgical operations includes a mobile wearable computer worn or carried by a user of the system, at least one perception sensor for collecting anatomical and/or instrumental measurement data in an operating scene, a processor adapted to process the collected anatomical and/or instrumental measurement data collected by the at least one perception sensor, a memory connected to the processor and adapted to store anatomical and/or instrumental measurement data, a robotic effector connected to the processor and adapted to carrying an instrument, wherein movements of the robotic effector are slaved to the anatomical and/or instrumental measurement data, wherein the anatomical and/or instrumental data delimit an area of action within which the movements of the robotic arm are restricted in the operating scene.

An endoscope system includes an endoscope, at least one monitor, a first measuring instrument configured to measure a first direction, at least one second measuring instrument configured to measure a second direction, a reception circuit configured to receive the image from the endoscope, and a processor. The first direction corresponds to a horizontal component of an imaging direction of the endoscope. The second direction corresponds to a horizontal component of a reference direction. The reference direction is a direction in which the at least one monitor faces or is a direction toward or away from an image display surface of the at least one monitor. The processor is configured to calculate an angle between the first direction and the second direction, process the image based on the angle, and display the processed image on the at least one monitor. The processing includes a rotation processing or a horizontal flip processing.

A navigation, tracking and guiding system for the positioning of operatory instruments inside the body of a patient. The system includes a control unit, a viewer and detecting means for determining the spatial position of the viewer. The system further includes a sensor associated to an operatory instrument and insertable inside the internal portion of the body of the patient. The control unit is configured to project on the viewer an image of the state of the internal portion.

An endoscopic imaging system (10) employing an endoscope (20) and an endoscope guidance controller (30). In operation, endoscope (20) generates an endoscopic video (23) of an anatomical structure within an anatomical region. Endoscopic guidance controller (30), responsive to a registration between the endoscopic video (23) and a volume image (44) of the anatomical region, controls a user interaction (50) with a graphical user interface (31) including one or more interactive planar slices (32) of the volume image (44), and responsive to the user interaction (50) with the graphical user interface (31), endoscopic guidance controller (30) controls a positioning of the endoscope (20) relative to the anatomical structure derived from the interactive planar slices (32) of the volume image (44). A robotic endoscopic imaging system (11) incorporates a robot (23) in the endoscopic imaging system (10) whereby endoscope guidance controller (30) controls a positioning by robot (23) of the endoscope (20) relative to the anatomical structure.

Provided is a method of generating a virtual x-ray image, the method including: obtaining a 3-dimensional (3D) image of a patient; determining a projection direction of the 3D image in consideration of a position relationship between an x-ray source of an x-ray device and the patient; and generating a virtual x-ray image by projecting the 3D image on a 2D plane in the determined projection direction.

A medical system includes an instrument, a display system, and a processing unit. The instrument includes an instrument shape sensor. The processing unit includes one or more processors. The processing unit is configured to, receive an anatomic model of a patient anatomy, receive shape sensor data from the instrument shape sensor while the instrument is positioned within the patient anatomy and registered to the anatomic model, determine a preferred fluoroscopic image plane for display on the display system based on the received shape sensor data and the area of interest, and provide an indication on the display system to guide positioning of a fluoroscopy system to obtain a fluoroscopic image in the preferred fluoroscopic image plane. An area of interest is identified in the anatomic model.

A tracking system for tracking a marker device for being attached to a medical device is provided, whereby the marker device includes a sensing unit comprising a magnetic object which may be excited by an external magnetic or electromagnetic excitation field into a mechanical oscillation of the magnetic object, and the tracking system comprises a field generator for generating a predetermined magnetic or electromagnetic excitation field for inducing mechanical oscillations of the magnetic object, a transducer for transducing a magnetic or electromagnetic field generated by the induced mechanical oscillations of the magnetic object into one or more electrical response signals, and a position determination unit for determining the position of the marker device on the basis of the one or more electrical response signals.

Provided is a medical imaging apparatus having an AR-visualization module operably coupled to a camera and to a position determination module, which is adapted to create an AR-image based on an image received from the camera and an AR-overlay positionally registered with the image, and which includes a display interface adapted to transmit the created AR-image to a medical display.