Interaction techniques and vessel analysis for preoperative planning in liver surgery

Abstract

We present visualization and interaction techniques for preoperative planning in oncologic liver surgery. After several image processing steps a 3d visualization of all relevant anatomic and pathologic structures is created. In this 3d visualization a surgeon can flexibly specify resection regions with resection tools which can be applied selectively to different structures. The combination of several views which can be synchronized makes it easy to compare different views on the resection plan. In addition, we present the application of vessel analysis techniques in order to make suggestions for optimal resections according to guidelines for liver surgery. The basic idea for these suggestions is to define the region which has to be removed in order to resect a lesion with a given tumor free margin. For this purpose, the vessels involved and the region supplied by them is estimated. It turned out that the resections suggested provide a reasonable and useful basis for preoperative planning. This contribution presents novel methods which have not been evaluated thoroughly yet.