Virtual surgical planning: Patient-specific imaging segmentation

Abstract

Medical errors cause death of thousands of people around the world each year. From common to complex procedures, medical training can be one method to reduce these alarming numbers. The medical simulation is a technique aimed at enhancing structured and guided experiences for learning and rehearsal of technical procedures. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging can be used to reconstruct the patient’s morphology and create a three-dimensional virtual environment to assists medical teaching and surgical planning. In this study we developed a virtual patient-specific model for surgical planning of a rare case of total craniopagus twins. Using the software 3D Slicer we created an environment which enables medical team studies and surgical planning using models that represents surgical steps and patient morphology. Images and videos were used by the medical team for discussions and explanations. The virtual models were considered by the medical team as useful tools to reliably represent the target patient’s anatomy. Consequently, a patient-specific virtual environment became an important tool for surgical planning and medical training. Pipelines which enable the faster imaging segmentations and 3D model’s reconstructions will become more common. In future work, we intend to develop a dedicated platform, which enables any user to access many visualization functions without programming experience.