GPS Laparoscopic Ultrasound: Embedding an Electromagnetic Sensor in a Laparoscopic Ultrasound Transducer
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
4-1-2019
Journal
Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
Volume
45
Issue
4
DOI
10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2018.11.014
Keywords
Augmented reality; Electromagnetic tracking; Laparoscopic ultrasound; Tracked ultrasound
Abstract
© 2019 Tracking the location and orientation of a laparoscopic ultrasound (LUS) transducer is a prerequisite in many surgical visualization and navigation applications. Electromagnetic (EM) tracking is a preferred method to track an LUS transducer with an articulating imaging tip. The conventional approach to integrating EM tracking with LUS is to attach an EM sensor on the outer surface of the imaging tip (external setup), which is not ideal for routine clinical use. In this work, we embedded an EM sensor inside a standard LUS transducer. We found that ultrasound image quality and the four-way articulation function of the transducer were not affected by this sensor integration. Furthermore, we found that the tracking accuracy of our integrated transducer was comparable to that of the external setup. An animal study conducted using the developed transducer suggests that an internally embedded EM sensor is a clinically more viable approach, and may be the future of tracking an articulating LUS transducer.
APA Citation
Liu, X., Kane, T., & Shekhar, R. (2019). GPS Laparoscopic Ultrasound: Embedding an Electromagnetic Sensor in a Laparoscopic Ultrasound Transducer. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 45 (4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2018.11.014