A prototype virtual reality system for preoperative planning of neuro-endovascular interventions

This paper describes our efforts at creating a system with real time acquisition and geometric processing of the patients vascular anatomy, supplemented by a framework to simulate catheter vasculature interaction. Our system uses biplane angiograms coupled with an algorithm for generation of 3D vascular trees for patient data acquisition. Surface reconstruction and processing of this data is performed to provide novel decision aids to the interventionalist. The processed data can be loaded in a virtual environment to simulate guidance of the catheter through the patient's vasculature. With our combination of techniques, a patient specific visualization and simulation environment can be prepared within the narrow time window available for this procedure.