Potential, Limitations and Challenges of Markerless Registration with the DLR 3D-Modeller in Medical Applications.

Abstract

Registration is necessary whenever planning data (e.g. biopsy needle trajectories based on preoperative images) have to be transferred into the operation room (OR). In numerous medical interventions a successful registration is crucial for the quality of the medical procedure, including radio surgery and navigated surgery. Often standard approaches in clinical use are based either on artificial landmarks or anatomical landmarks, e.g. the manubrium. Markerless methods using e.g. the patient skin or bone surface are in clinical use, too (e.g. z-touch from BrainLAB). However, contact free systems still lack of dexterity and accuracy and are a current research topic. This work analyses a markerless and contact free registration using the advanced DLR 3D-Modeller (3DMo). The 3D-Modeller allows for acquiring the patient surface intraoperatively using three different methods: a stereo camera sensor (SCS), a laser-range scan (LRS), and a light-stripe profiler (LSP).