Posterior Hepatic Detection Using Ultrasound for Deformation Correction in Image Guided Liver Surgery

Abstract

This project involves the use of ultrasound imaging as a method to acquire posterior surface information intraoperatively for the use in deformation correction for image guided liver surgery. In this thesis, the subsurface effects of deformation correction were explored using a more realistic phantom model to replicated liver deformation that occurs during surgery. The use of intraoperative ultrasound as a possible modality for surface acquisition was investigated using simulated surfaces from computational tomography volumes and segmented tracked ultrasound images. The incorporation of a partial posterior surface from ultrasound showed a significant improvement in guidance capability, reducing the mean target registration error by 4.1 mm in the operating region of interest. Despite the remaining obstacles, the results in this work demonstrated the potential of using ultrasound, a widely accepted tool, as a practical posterior surface detection method in deformation correction in image guided liver surgery.