Article intro - a Probabilistic Method to Improve the Accuracy of CIS Systems

 A recent article in Acta Polytechnica Hungarica proposed a holistic approach to look at the erros accumulating with IGS systems: "Probabilistic Method to Improve the Accuracy of Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems".

Abstract

"The technological development of the last decades resulted in the rise of entirelynew paradigms in healthcare. Computer-Integrated Surgery (CIS) is providing innovative,minimally invasive solutions to heal complex injuries and diseases.  It integrates roboticdevices to the treatment delivery phase. By now, well over 6 million successful operationshave been accomplished with various systems.   In certain critical surgical procedures,where  spatial  accuracy  is  a  must,  physicians  extensively  rely  on  the  help  of  CIS,  andparticularly on intra-operative navigation system.  For these, the ways of use, includingsetup, registration and application accuracy metrics are provided by the manufacturers.Depending on the setup, inherent system errors can accumulate, and lead to significantdeviation in position measurements. It is crucial to improve the precision of integrated se-tups, and to determine the overall task execution error. The stochastic approach proposedhere offers an easy and straightforward solution to map and scale the error propagation.Applying pre-operative and on-site simulations, the optimal positioning of the navigationsystem can be achieved. This results in faster task execution and reduction of the probabil-ity of surgical errors. Surgical tracking systems have broader applications in endoscopicsurgeries, and the method described in the article can be directly applied to these proce-dures too. It was tested in silico and on a neurosurgical prototype robot system developedat the Johns Hopkins University. The proposed features together can greatly increase thesafety and reliability of all procedures where camera systems are involved, and ease thesurgeon’s task and potentially reduce operating time."

Source: APH