Minimally invasive surgery, both robotic and
laparoscopic, has demonstrable benefits for the patient. However, inability to distinguish different tissues
and target lesions reduces eligibity for laparoscopic
surgery. Image guidance using previously acquired
imaging has the potential to mitigate these effects
increasing eligibity for minimally invasive surgery. We
present the ''SmartLiver'' image guidance system for
image guided laparoscopic and robotic liver resection.
Existing image guidance systems for the liver [2,3] rely
on separate probes to locate points on the liver surface
relative to the theatre coordinate system. With
sufficiently long digitizing probes these systems can be
used for laparoscopic as well as open surgery. However,
as well as requiring an additional tool in theatre they do
not locate the laparoscope relative to the liver,
precluding the use of augmented reality on the
laparoscope's display. The SmartLiver guidance system
addresses these two short comings by using a tracked
stereo laparoscope to locate the liver surface.
This paper describes the system, results of validation
experiments on porcine and phantom models and initial
results from first use in humans.