A Navigation System for Augmenting Laparoscopic Ultrasound

Establishing image context is the major difficulty of performing laparoscopic ultrasound. The standard techniques used by transabdominal ultrasonographers to understand image orientation are difficult to apply with laparoscopic instruments. In this paper, we describe a navigation system that displays the position and orientation of laparoscopic ultrasound images to the operating surgeon in real time. The display technique we developed for showing the orientation information uses a 3D model of the aorta as the main visual reference. This technique is helpful because it provides surgeons with important spatial cues, which we show improves their ability to interpret the laparoscopic ultrasound.