Computer-assisted liver tumor surgery using a novel semiautomatic and a hybrid semiautomatic segmentation algorithm

Abstract We developed a medical image segmentation and preoperative planning application which implements a semiautomatic and a hybrid semiautomatic liver segmentation algorithm. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of computer-assisted liver tumor surgery using these algorithms which are based on thresholding by pixel intensity value from initial seed points. A random sample of 12 patients undergoing elective high-risk hepatectomies at our institution was prospectively selected to undergo computer-assisted surgery using our algorithms (June 2013–July 2014). Quantitative and qualitative evaluation was performed. The average computer analysis time (segmentation, resection planning, volumetry, visualization) was 45 min/dataset. The runtime for the semiautomatic algorithm was <0.2 s/slice. Liver volumetric segmentation using the hybrid method was achieved in 12.9 s/dataset (SD ± 6.14). Mean similarity index was 96.2 % (SD ± 1.6). The future liver remnant volume calculated by the application showed a correlation of 0.99 to that calculated using manual boundary tracing. The 3D liver models and the virtual liver resections had an acceptable coincidence with the real intraoperative findings. The patient-specific 3D models produced using our semiautomatic and hybrid semiautomatic segmentation algorithms proved to be accurate for the preoperative planning in liver tumor surgery and effectively enhanced the intraoperative medical image guidance.