Virtual reality-enhanced ultrasound guidance: A novel technique for intracardiac interventions

Abstract

Cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, although a highly invasive interventional approach leading to numerous complications, is still the most common therapy option for treating many forms of cardiac disease. We are currently engaged in a project designed to replace many bypass surgeries with less traumatic, minimally invasive intracardiac therapies. This project combines real-time intra-operative echocardiography with a virtual reality environment providing the surgeon with a broad range of valuable information. Pre-operative images, electrophysiological data, positions of magnetically tracked surgical instruments, and dynamic surgical target representations are among the data that can be presented to the surgeon to augment intra-operative ultrasound images. This augmented reality system is applicable to procedures such as mitral valve replacement and atrial septal defect repair, as well as ablation therapies for treatment of atrial fibrillation. Our goal is to develop a robust augmented reality system that will improve the efficacy of intracardiac treatments and broaden the range of cardiac surgeries that can be performed in a minimally invasive manner. This paper provides an overview of our interventional system and specific experiments that assess its pre-clinical performance.

Most Current Solutions using Virtual-Reality-Based Methods in Cardiac Surgery -- A Survey

“…MRI) and intraoperative in vivo (based on e.g. ultrasound) are more and more often integrated with models of surgical instruments, offering 4.8 mm RMS alignment accuracy [49][50][51]. The observed difficulties in the interaction of surgeons with the VR environment result from their speed of orientation, insufficient depth information and delegation of view control with an emphasis on the efficiency of the user and his workload [53].…”

Emerging Techniques in Imaging, Modelling and Visualization for Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy

“…As in any wave, higher frequencies are associated with smaller wavelengths, higher penetration power, and improved image resolution [152,153]. Volume rendering from ultrasound images has led to three-dimensional, time-resolved ultrasound (4D US), and real-time imag-ing [154]. US is relatively inexpensive, portable, and safe, so it has become a customary tool in many clinical applications such as anesthesia, critical care, prenatal care, and pain management.…”

Recent advances in robot‐assisted echography: combining perception, control and cognition

“…Thus, some researchers used techniques, e.g. augmented reality (AR) [88, 89], virtual reality (VR) [90] to visualise US images to improve the cognitive ability for echography leaners.…”