Novel interaction techniques for neurosurgical planning and stereotactic navigation

Area of Science:

• Neurosurgery
• Medical Imaging
• Computer-Aided Surgery

Background:

• Neurosurgical planning relies on visualizing multimodal imaging data (MRI, CT, fMRI, SPECT).
• Effective visualization of functional brain regions within surrounding context is crucial for epilepsy surgery.
• Current visualization methods using 2D slices or basic 3D rendering may limit detailed exploration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce novel interaction techniques for enhanced visualization of multimodal neurosurgical data.
• To improve the exploration and planning capabilities for neurosurgical procedures, particularly in epilepsy.
• To develop tools that aid surgeons in identifying critical brain regions for electrode implantation and resection.

Main Methods:

• Extended the line widget from VTK to enable dynamic cropping of brain regions.
• Implemented various cropping shapes including spherical, cubical, ellipsoidal, and cylindrical (probe-aligned).
• Integrated the developed cropping tool with an existing image-guided navigation system for epilepsy neurosurgery.

Main Results:

• The new interaction techniques allow surgeons to control the shape and extent of visually cropped brain regions.
• These tools facilitate a more effective exploration of multimodal data, preserving essential surrounding context.
• The integration with image-guided navigation systems is currently under investigation for surgical planning.

Conclusions:

• Novel visualization techniques offer improved methods for exploring multimodal neurosurgical data.
• Interactive cropping tools can enhance surgical planning by providing better contextual understanding of brain anatomy and function.
• Further integration and feedback from neurosurgeons will refine these tools for use in image-guided neurosurgery.