VIRTUE: Combination of virtual and optical endoscopic navigation in neurosurgery and maxillofacial surgery

Overview:

In the VIRTUE project minimally invasive endoscopic methods of surgery are combined with techniques from virtual endoscopy and image guided navigation. This can improve three-dimensional spatial orientation significantly during surgical procedures. In particular the better representation of risk structures like blood vessels or nerve fibers makes a better planning possible. Thereby the risk of serious complications of an intervention is reduced.

Project Partners:

GRIS: Visual Computing for Medicine (VCM) Group
Neurosurgery:
- Dr. med. Dirk Freudenstein

Oral-, Maxillo-Facial surgery:
- PD Dr. med. Dr. med. dent. Jürgen Hoffmann
- Dr. med. Dirk Troitzsch
- Dr. med. Carsten Westendorff

Objectives:

The aim of the VIRTUE project is the synchronization of virtual endoscopy with intraoperative navigation. In the final application, a virtual endoscopic image corresponding to the current optical endoscopic view will be generated in realtime. To achieve such a synchronized view, current tracking information has to be received from the intraoperative navigation equipment. In order to make the exchange of data with an image-guided surgery system possible, a specialized data interface is used. Using this network-based communication layer, many different types of information can be downloaded from and uploaded to the image-guided surgery (IGS) device.
In parallel to the realization of this main objective, several further activities are developed within the VIRTUE project by the VCM group, such as a software framework for medical visualization, an augmented reality system oriented to medical applications, etc.

Snapshots:

HELIOS/Volv: Software platform for medical visualization


HELIOS: Traditional orthogonal slices	HELIOS: 3D Representation of the ventricle system	Volv: Multi-Slice view	Volv: Classified orthogonal slices of a thorax