Assessment and application of the coherent point drift algorithm to augmented reality surgical navigation for laparoscopic partial nephrectomy

Purpose The surface-based registration approach to laparoscopic augmented reality (AR) has clear advantages. Nonrigid point-set registration paves the way for surface-based registration. Among current non-rigid point set registration methods, the coherent point drift (CPD) algorithm is rarely used because of two challenges: (1) volumetric deformation is difficult to predict, and (2) registration from intraoperative visible tissue surface to whole anatomical preoperative model is a “part-to-whole” registration that CPD cannot be applied directly to. We preliminarily applied CPD on surgical navigation for laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN). However, it introduces normalization errors and lacks navigation robustness. This paper presents important advances for more effectively applying CPD to LPN surgical navigation while attempting to quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of CPD-based surgical navigation. Methods First, an optimized volumetric deformation (Op-VD) algorithm is proposed to achieve accurate prediction of volume deformation. Then, a projection-based partial selection method is presented to conveniently and robustly apply the CPD to LPN surgical navigation. Finally, kidneys with different deformations in vitro, phantom and in vivo experiments are performed to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of our approach. Results The average root-mean-square error of volume deformation was refined to 0.84 mm. The mean target registration error (TRE) of the surface and inside markers in the in vitro experiments decreased to 1.51 mm and 1.29 mm, respectively. The robustness and precision of CPD-based navigation were validated in phantom and in vivo experiments, and the mean navigation TRE of the phantom experiments was found to be $$1.69 \pm 0.31$$ 1.69 ± 0.31 mm. Conclusion Accurate volumetric deformation and robust navigation results can be achieved in AR navigation of LPN by using surface-based registration with CPD. Evaluation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods while showing the clinical application potential of CPD. This work has important guiding significance for the application of the CPD in laparoscopic AR.