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General Structure of a Vertebra

General Structure of a Vertebra

A typical vertebra, with the exception of the sacrum and coccyx, consists of a body, a vertebral arch, and seven different projections termed processes. The anterior portion of the vertebrae, the body, supports about half the body’s weight. The vertebral bodies progressively increase in size and thickness from the cervical region to the lumbar region of the vertebral column. The intervertebral discs present between the bodies of adjacent vertebrae firmly unites them, forming a continuous...

Vertebral Column: Regions and Curvature

Vertebral Column: Regions and Curvature

The vertebral column or spine is a flexible column that supports the head, neck, and body and allows for their movements. It also protects the spinal cord.
Regions of the Vertebral Column
In an adult, the spine is subdivided into five regions: the cervical, the thoracic, the lumbar, the sacral, and the coccygeal region. The spine initially develops as a series of 33 vertebrae; after 20 years of age, the nine bones in the sacral region, five sacral, and four coccygeal bones fuse to form...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 19, 2025

Precision Measurements and Parametric Models of Vertebral Endplates

Precision Measurements and Parametric Models of Vertebral Endplates

Published on: September 17, 2019

SurgPointTransformer: transformer-based vertebra shape completion using RGB-D imaging.

Aidana Massalimova¹, Florentin Liebmann¹, Sascha Jecklin¹

¹Research in Orthopedic Computer Science, University Hospital Balgrist, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Computer Assisted Surgery (Abingdon, England)

|June 3, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study presents SurgPointTransformer, a novel radiation-free method for 3D spine reconstruction using RGB-D data. It accurately reconstructs unexposed spinal regions, advancing computer-assisted surgery.

Keywords:

Computer-assisted surgery RGB-D point transformer shape completion

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Last Updated: Sep 19, 2025

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Published on: September 28, 2017

Area of Science:

Medical Imaging
Computer-Assisted Surgery
Artificial Intelligence

Background:

Current intraoperative imaging (CT, fluoroscopy) for 3D spine visualization uses ionizing radiation.
This radiation poses risks to patients and healthcare professionals.
There is a need for safer, radiation-free imaging alternatives in surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce a radiation-free 3D spine reconstruction method using RGB-D data.
To develop a shape completion technique for unexposed spinal regions based on sparse surface observations.
To enhance the perception and intelligence of computer-aided and robot-assisted surgery systems.

Main Methods:

Utilized RGB-D data for 3D spine reconstruction.
Developed SurgPointTransformer, a shape completion method inspired by surgeons' mental maps.
Incorporated vertebra segmentation to extract point clouds for shape completion.
Employed an attention mechanism to learn relationships between visible and complete spine structures.

Main Results:

Achieved a Chamfer distance of 5.39 mm, F-score of 0.85, Earth mover's distance of 11.00, and SNR of 22.90 dB.
SurgPointTransformer significantly outperformed existing state-of-the-art baseline methods.
Demonstrated successful 3D vertebral shape reconstruction from sparse surface data.

Conclusions:

The proposed method offers a viable radiation-free alternative for 3D spine reconstruction.
This technology has the potential to improve patient safety in surgical procedures.
The advancement contributes to more intelligent and perceptive computer-assisted surgical systems.