A real-time online video overlay navigation system for minimally invasive laparoscopic tumor resection

The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed description of our real-time navigation system for computer assisted surgery. The system was developed with laparoscopic partial nephrectomies as a first application scenario. The main goal of the application is to enable tracking of the tumor position and orientation during a surgery. Our system is based on ultrasound to CT registration and electromagnetic tracking. The basic idea is to process tracking information to generate an augmented reality (AR) visualization of a tumor model in the camera image of a laparoscopic camera. Thereby it enhances the surgeon's view on the current scene and therefore facilitates higher safety during the surgery. So far we have applied our system in vitro during two phantom trials with a surgeon which yielded promising results.