Planning, simulation and assistance with intraoperative MRI

This paper introduces some of the authors' recent attempts to enhance image-guided treatment in intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These include the deformable registration of preoperative images obtained by 1.5 Tesla MRI to the intraoperative images, and a needle-holding robotic system that is MR-compatible and optimized to work with intraoperative MRI. The role of deformable registration is to enhance intraoperative planning and simulation, and the robotic system is to systematically link the result of such planning and simulation to active surgical assistance. The former was retrospectively examined in prostate cancer biopsy cases and statistically suggested that deformable registration significantly improved the quality of registration. The latter, which is planned to be applied to prostate brachytherapy, was found to have good MR compatibility and its maneuvering had no adverse effect on the imaging and vice versa.