Universitât Bern

Cascination Ag

Stefan Weber

Tom Williamson

Brett J Bell

Juan Anso

Delphine Ribes

Philippe Kurt Zysset

Nicolas Gerber

Arne Niklas Feldmann

Kate Gerber

Pascale Tinguely

Daniel Candinas

Matthias Peterhans

Marco Matulic

Multi-component systems and methods for determining the proximity of surgical tools to key anatomical features are provided. The inventive systems and methods can be applied in any surgical procedure requiring precision to avoid damage to key anatomical features such as nerves, with a particular example being the robotic cochlear implantation minimally invasive approach to cochlear implantation. Use of purpose built surgical robots, electromyography and tissue impedance, stereotactic tracking and drilling force/bone density measurements are all key components, with inputs from these various modalities being dynamically weighted. In the example of robotic cochlear implantation, the inventive concepts are used to provide key surgical guidance so as to avoid damage to the facial nerve and the chorda tympani, among other anatomical features.

System for determining proximity of a surgical tool to key anatomical features

A drill bit () for creating a tubular hole in a bone (), comprises: a longitudinal body () extending along an axis () and having a proximal end and a distal end (); a main cutting edge () formed at the distal end () of the body (); a main cutting face () extending from the main cutting edge () and defining a rake angle (&#x3b1;); and a spiral flute () formed around the body () and extending from the main cutting face () along the axis () of the body (). The main cutting edge () is the only single main cutting edge () of the drill bit (). The spiral flute () is the only single spiral flute () of the drill bit. The rake angle (&#x3b1;) is at least 25&#xb0;. The drill bit () according to the invention drill bit allows for minimizing heat production when drilling a hole into the bone.

Surgical drill bit

The invention relates to a system for estimating the spatial position (pose) of a tool () within an object (), particularly in the form of a human bone that is to be machined with said tool, comprising: a sensor () being designed to be coupled to said tool (), which sensor () is further designed to generate an sensor output signal () upon machining of said object () along an actual trajectory (), which sensor output signal () depends on a material property of said object along said actual trajectory (), an analyzing means being designed to determine a correlation between said sensor output signal () upon machining said object () and a plurality of pre-determined candidate output signals (), each candidate output signal () being generated in beforehand using said material property along an associated model trajectory () in a model of said object (), and wherein said analyzing means is designed to estimate a spatial position of the tool () within the object () using the model trajectory () whose associated candidate output signal () has the highest correlation with the sensor output signal (), for instance. The invention further relates to a method for estimating the pose of the tool (), as well as a computer program product.

System and method for estimating the spatial position of a tool within an object

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Boll, Switzerland

Stefan Weber