Integrated software for fusion of CT- and rotational angiography for image guided neurosurgery on cerebral aneurysms

Abstract

Aneurysms of intracerebral arteries may be a source of often life-thraetening subarachnoid bleedings (SAB) that require an immediate course of action. Therefore fast and accurate diagnostics and planning of interventions is crucial. For the case of neurosurgical clipping of the aneurysm we presented a framework for optimised fusion of the routinely available imaging modalities CT- and conventional Rotational Angiography (CTA and RA) and integration with a commercial navigation system. To gain access to these benefits, however, the surgeon had to rely on a number of people providing him with the data and operating the various software tools. In this work we therefore present a GUI based Python program integrating all the necessary components in an easy to handle manner. Thus the clinician may perform all the necessary planning steps himself, namely gathering, conversion and matching of the data plus filtering and exporting the output to the system for planning and accompanying surgery. To enhance the quality and availability of the visualisation we also engaged a ray casting approach. This funcionality may be called idenpendently and is not yet fully integrated into the aforementioned software. Up to the point of exporting the data and visualisations to the planning system of choice, for all the building blocks and tools strictly freely available software was used enabling other workgroups to share the approach described here.