Computer-aided liver surgery planning: an augmented reality approach

Surgical resection of liver tumors requires a detailed three-dimensional understanding of a complex arrangement of vasculature, liver segments and tumors inside the liver. In most cases, surgeons need to develop this understanding by looking at sequences of axial images from modalities like X-ray computed tomography. A system for liver surgery planning is reported that enables physicians to visualize and refine segmented input liver data sets, as well as to simulate and evaluate different resections plans. The system supports surgeons in finding the optimal treatment strategy for each patient and eases the data preparation process. The use of augmented reality contributes to a user-friendly design and simplifies complex interaction with 3D objects. The main function blocks developed so far are: basic augmented reality environment, user interface, rendering, surface reconstruction from segmented volume data sets, surface manipulation and quantitative measurement toolkit. The flexible design allows to add functionality via plug-ins. First practical evaluation steps have shown a good acceptance. Evaluation of the system is ongoing and future feedback from surgeons will be collected and used for design refinements.