A systematic review of the techniques for automatic segmentation of the human upper airway using volumetric images

The human upper airway is comprised of many anatomical volumes. The obstructions in the upper airway volumes are needed to be diagnosed which requires volumetric segmentation. Manual segmentation is time-consuming and requires expertise in the field. Automatic segmentation provides reliable results and also saves time and effort for the expert. The objective of this study is to systematically review the literature to study various techniques used for the automatic segmentation of the human upper airway regions in volumetric images. PRISMA guidelines were followed to conduct the systematic review. Four online databases Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, and JURN were used for the searching of the relevant papers. The relevant papers were shortlisted using inclusion and exclusion eligibility criteria. Three review questions were made and explored to find their answers. The best technique among all the literature studies based on the Dice coefficient and precision was identified and justified through the analysis. This systematic review provides insight to the researchers so that they shall be able to overcome the prominent issues in the field identified from the literature. The outcome of the review is based on several parameters, e.g., accuracy, techniques, challenges, datasets, and segmentation of different sub-regions. Flowchart of the search process as per PRISMA guidelines along with inclusion and exclusion criteria.