Medical Image Computing and Computer-Aided Medical Interventions Applied to Soft Tissues: Work in Progress in Urology

• Published in: Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 94; no. 9; pp. 1665 - 1677
• Main Authors: Troccaz, J., Voros, S., Bart, S., Bolla, M., Chartier-Kastler, E., Descotes, J.-L., Dusserre, A., Giraud, J.-Y., Long, J.-A., Moalic, R., Mozer, P., Baumann, M., Berkelman, P., Cinquin, P., Daanen, V., Leroy, A., Marchal, M., Payan, Y., Promayon, E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.09.2006; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Anatomical structure; Bioengineering; Biological tissues; Biomedical imaging; Computer Science; Computer-aided surgery; Diagnostic systems; Life Sciences; Medical; Medical diagnostic imaging; medical image registration; Medical Imaging; Medical robotics; Medical simulation; Minimally invasive surgery; Other; Radio frequency; Robotics; Robots; Simulators; Soft tissues; Surgery; Tumors; Urology; medical image registration; Computer-aided surgery; medical robotics; urology
• DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2006.880724
• ISSN: 0018-9219

Until recently, computer-aided medical interventions (CAMI) and medical robotics have focused on rigid and nondeformable anatomical structures. Nowadays, special attention is paid to soft tissues, raising complex issues due to their mobility and deformation. Mini-invasive digestive surgery was probably one of the first fields where soft tissues were handled through the development of simulators, tracking of anatomical structures and specific assistance robots. However, other clinical domains, for instance urology, are concerned. Indeed, laparoscopic surgery, new tumour destruction techniques (e.g., HIFU, radiofrequency, or cryoablation), increasingly early detection of cancer, and use of interventional and diagnostic imaging modalities, recently opened new challenges to the urologist and scientists involved in CAMI. This resulted in the last five years in a very significant increase of research and developments of computer-aided urology systems. In this paper, we propose a description of the main problems related to computer-aided diagnostic and therapy of soft tissues and give a survey of the different types of assistance offered to the urologist: robotization, image fusion, surgical navigation. Both research projects and operational industrial systems are discussed