Optical coherence tomography as a tracking device for OCT guided laser cochleostomy: algorithm and first results

Conventional optical tracking systems have accuracy on the scale of several hundred micrometers. This is insufficient for an optical coherence tomography (OCT) guided laser cochleostomy which requires a much higher accuracy. In this paper, we evaluate the use of OCT itself as a tracking device by locating artificial landmarks generated around the cochleostomy. The results of the first experiments indicate that it is possible to achieve a mean absolute error of ca. 30μm for a single landmark using the proposed algorithm. An even smaller error is expected when at least 3-4 landmarks are used for the 3D tracking. The algorithm can be also used for the calibration and registration between the OCT and the laser ablation systems.