Minimally invasive holographic surface scanning for soft-tissue image registration

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Surgical Technology
• Optical Metrology

Background:

• Intrasurgical image guidance has advanced for soft tissues, enabling visualization of instruments and subsurface structures.
• Current methods rely on preoperative image registration to intraoperative surface points, often requiring invasive scanning.
• A noncontact, minimally invasive scanning technology is needed for wider adoption of soft-tissue image guidance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe and validate a novel system for minimally invasive soft-tissue surface scanning using conoscopic holography.
• To assess the system's suitability for biological tissues and compare its performance to existing clinical methods.
• To demonstrate the system's capability in guiding surgical instruments to subsurface targets.

Main Methods:

• Development of a tracked, off-the-shelf conoscopic holography system.
• Validation experiments involving ex vivo biological and phantom tissues.
• Comparison of surface scan quality with clinically used laser range scanning systems.
• Experimental demonstration of needle guidance to subsurface targets.

Main Results:

• Conoscopic holography is suitable for scanning biological tissues, yielding surface scans comparable to open-surgery laser range scanners.
• The system demonstrated effective minimally invasive surface scanning through a single laparoscopic port.
• Surgical needle guidance to subsurface targets achieved an average tip error of less than 3 mm.

Conclusions:

• Conoscopic holography presents a viable noncontact, minimally invasive solution for soft-tissue surface scanning in surgical guidance.
• This technology can enhance the adoption of image-guided soft-tissue procedures.
• The demonstrated accuracy supports its potential for precise surgical interventions.