Method and system for determining optimal timing for surgical instrument insertion in image-guided surgical procedures

A system for surgical procedure assistance, comprising:

• a sensor position extraction unit configured to obtain, in a first coordinate system, a first set of positions of a plurality of sensors in an image captured prior to a surgical procedure, the plurality of sensors being coupled with a patient's body;
• a sensor position tracking unit configured to track the plurality of sensors to obtain, in a second coordinate system, one or more second sets of positions of the plurality of sensors, wherein each set of the one or more second sets of positions is obtained at a different time instant, each set corresponding to a change in position of the plurality of sensors caused by movement of the patient's body, the second coordinate system being different that the first coordinate system;
• a measurement unit configured to calculate one or more similarity measures between the first set of positions and each of the one or more second sets of positions of the plurality of sensors;
• and
• a timing determination unit configured to determine a timing at which a surgical device is to be inserted into the patient's body based on the one or more similarity measures, wherein the timing is a time instant corresponding to one of the one or more second set of positions having a largest similarity measure with the first set of positions.

A non-transitory machine readable medium having information recorded thereon for surgical procedure assistance, wherein the information, when read by a machine, causes the machine to perform the steps of:

• obtaining, in a first coordinate system, a first set of positions of a plurality of sensors in an image captured prior to a surgical procedure, the plurality of sensors being coupled with a patient's body;
• tracking, by a tracking device, the plurality of sensors to obtain, in a second coordinate system, one or more second sets of positions of the plurality of sensors, wherein each set of the one or more second sets of positions is obtained at a different time instant, each set corresponding to a change in position of the plurality of sensors caused by movement of the patient's body, the second coordinate system being different that the first coordinate system;
• calculating one or more similarity measures between the first set of positions and each of the one or more second sets of positions of the plurality of sensors;
• and
• determining a timing at which a surgical device is to be inserted into the patient's body based on the one or more similarity measures, wherein the timing is the time instant corresponding to one of the one or more second set of positions having a largest similarity measure with the first set of positions.

A method, implemented on a computing device having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform capable of connecting to a network, comprising:

• obtaining a first set of positions of a plurality of sensors in an image captured prior to an operation on an object, the plurality of sensors being coupled with the object;
• tracking, by a tracking device, the plurality of sensors to obtain one or more second sets of positions of the plurality of sensors, wherein each set of the one or more second sets of positions is obtained at a different time instant, each set corresponding to a change in position of the plurality of sensors caused by a movement of the object;
• calculating one or more similarity measures between the first set of positions and each of the one or more second sets of positions of the plurality of sensors;
• and
• determining a timing at which a surgical device is to be inserted into the object based on the one or more similarity measures, wherein the timing is a time instant corresponding to one of the one or more second set of positions having a largest similarity measure with the first set of positions.