Disablement of a surgical drill via CT guidance to protect vital anatomy

Abstract

Surgery requires resection. Some resection is accomplished with a drill. The drill is controlled electronically and with additional circuitry can be controlled by a computer. This thesis describes a means for controlling a surgical drill with a computer such that the drill is disabled except when it is a predefined safe zone. Software provides a human-machine interface for displaying CT images of anatomy to be resected and for displaying the current position of the drill tip. The interface allows the operation to (a) register physical space to CT space, (b) track the drill, and (c) control the drill automatically. The software is written in C++ with the help of open-source libraries to run under the Microsoft Windows operating system. Results of tests of the accuracy of the system are provided.