Ucl Business Plc

John Duncan

Sebastien Ourselin

Rachel Sparks

Tim Wehner

Roman Rodionov

Beate Diehl

Mark Nowell

Andrew McEvoy

Gergely Zombori

Anna Miserocchi

A computer system and corresponding method are used to assist in planning a trajectory for a surgical insertion into a skull to a target representing an anatomical region. The computer system is configured to: provide the computer system with a three-dimensional image representation of the skull and brain which has been parcellated into anatomical regions, including an identification of critical objects comprising structures within the brain to be avoided during the surgical insertion; provide the computer system with a region of interest comprising an anatomical region within the brain representing the target of the trajectory for the surgical insertion; determine a metric for voxel locations within the anatomical region corresponding to the region of interest, the metric representing the suitability of each of the voxel locations to be a target location for the trajectory; select a set of one or more voxel locations having the greatest suitability according to the metric within the region of interest, each of the one or more selected voxel locations representing a potential target location for the trajectory; and identify a trajectory for the surgical insertion to a potential target location in the region of interest.

System and method for computer-assisted planning of a trajectory for a surgical insertion into a skull

A system and method are provided for using a computer system to assist in planning a trajectory (A,B) for a surgical insertion into a skull. The method comprises providing the computer system with a three-dimensional representation of the skull and of critical objects located within the skull, wherein the critical objects comprise anatomical features to be avoided during the surgical insertion. The method further comprises providing the computer system with a target location () for the insertion within the skull. The method further comprises generating by the computer system a first set comprising a plurality of entry points, each entry point () representing a surface location on the skull, and each entry point () being associated (2D) with a trajectory (A,B) from the entry point () to the target location (). The method further comprises discarding by the computer system entry points from the first set to form a second, reduced set comprising a plurality of entry points, wherein an entry point () is discarded from the first set of entry points if the entry point () has an entry angle which fails a condition for being substantially perpendicular to the skull surface. For each entry point () in the second set, the computer system assess the entry point () against a set of one or more criteria, wherein the set of one or more criteria includes a risk factor based on the separation between the critical objects and the trajectory (A,B) which is associated with said entry point ()). This risk factor may be calculated by integrating f(x) along the trajectory (A,B) associated (2D) with the entry point (), where x represents distance along the trajectory (A,B) to a sample point, and f(x) is a function based on distance from the sample point at distance x to a critical object which is nearest to said sample point.

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London, United Kingdom

John Duncan