Watershed Segmentation of Intervertebral Disk and Spinal Canal from MRI Images

A robust method to segment intervertebral disks and spinal canal in magnetic resonance images is required as part of a precise 3D reconstruction for computer assistance during diskectomy procedure with minimally invasive surgery approach. In this paper, an unsupervised segmentation technique for intervertebral disks and spinal canal from MRI data is presented. The proposed scheme uses a watershed transform and morphological operations to locate regions containing structures of interest. Results show that the method is robust enough to cope with variability of shapes and topologies characterizing MRI images of scoliotic patients.

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