Augmented reality for port placement and navigation in robotically assisted minimally invasive cardiovascular surgery

Optimal port placement and intra-operative navigation in robotically assisted minimally invasive cardiovascular surgery are essential for the improvement and success of a teleoperator based heart operation. A new system incorporating both port placement planning and intraoperative navigation was established. Offline the optimal port placement is planned on a threedimensional virtual reconstruction of the patient’s computed tomography scan. Using this planned data an accurate in-vivo port placement can be performed, which is achieved by augmented reality techniques superimposing virtual models of the thorax and the teleoperator arms on their real world counterparts. A significant reduction of operation time may be obtained by a precise and collision-free planning and placement of teleoperator arms. Collision detection techniques are expected to allow for avoidance of consecutive new port placement by detecting intersections of instruments among each other and with the patient’s anatomy. Endoscopic failure or switching to open surgery may be evaded.