Image Guided Surgery

Michael W. Peshkin
Northwestern University

12:00 pm Wed. Feb. 28 in 159 Mechanical Engineering

Research groups worldwide are advancing the state of the art in several kinds of image guided surgery: telesurgery in which surgeon and patient are physically distant, endoscopic or minimally invasive "keyhole" surgery, and stereotactic or robot-guided surgery. This talk will begin with descriptions and some video of projects in each of the above areas, and discussion of what the key problems seem to be.

Our group's work in stereotactic surgery is motivated by the amazing capabilities of medical diagnostic imaging, and the on-screen surgical planning that can be done on the resulting images. Imaging and planning has outpaced the surgeon's ability to carry out his/her plans in the operating room. Robot-guided stereotactic surgery offers coordination between diagnostic images and surgical procedures. The result is more accurate execution of preoperative surgical plans, and (often) less invasive procedures.

We will also discuss our recent work in "coordinated fluoroscopy", where fluoroscope and a robot are used for three-dimensional planning and surgery, even without a CT scan.