Ureter detection using waveband-selective imaging
AssigneeIntuitive Surgical Operations, Inc.
InventorsJeffrey M. DiCarlo, Ian E. McDowall, Jonathan M. Sorger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Selective reflection of light by ureters and by tissue around the ureters is used to safely and efficiently image the ureters. In one aspect, a plurality of surgical site scenes is captured. Each of the plurality of surgical site scenes is captured from reflected light having a different light spectrum. The plurality of captured surgical site scenes is analyzed to identify ureter tissue in the captured surgical site scenes. A surgical site scene is displayed on a display device. The displayed surgical site scene has ureter tissue artificially highlighted.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- capturing, with an endoscope located entirely outside a ureter of a patient, a plurality of surgical site scenes, each surgical site scene in the plurality of surgical site scenes being captured from reflected light of a different waveband of a plurality of wavebands, each waveband of the plurality of wavebands being reflected by ureter tissue of the ureter and non-ureter tissue outside the ureter;
- detecting a difference between spectral reflectances of each of the surgical site scenes in the captured surgical site scenes;
- identifying, based on the detected difference between the spectral reflectances of each of the surgical site scenes in the captured surgical site scenes, pixels in the captured surgical site scenes that correspond to the ureter tissue and pixels in the captured surgical site scenes that correspond to the non-ureter tissue outside the ureter.
A surgical system comprising:
- an image capture system, the image capture system being configured to use an endoscope located entirely outside a ureter of a patient to capture a plurality of surgical site scenes, each surgical site scene in the plurality of surgical site scenes being captured from reflected light of a different waveband of a plurality of wavebands, each waveband of the plurality of wavebands being reflected by ureter tissue of the ureter and non-ureter tissue outside the ureter;
- a ureter analysis module coupled to the image capture system, the ureter analysis module being configured to:
- detect a difference between spectral reflectances of each of the surgical site scenes in the captured surgical site scenes, and
- identify, based on the detected difference between the spectral reflectances of each of the surgical site scenes in the captured surgical site scenes, pixels in the captured surgical site scenes that correspond to the ureter tissue and pixels in the captured surgical site scenes that correspond to the non-ureter tissue outside the ureter.
A surgical system comprising:
- means for using an endoscope located entirely outside a ureter of a patient to capture a plurality of surgical site scenes, each surgical site scene in the plurality of surgical site scenes being captured from reflected light of a different waveband of a plurality of wavebands, each waveband of the plurality of wavebands being reflected by ureter tissue of the ureter and non-ureter tissue outside the ureter;
- means for detecting a difference between spectral reflectances of each of the surgical site scenes in the captured surgical site scenes;
- and
- means for identifying, based on the detected difference between the spectral reflectances of each of the surgical site scenes in the captured surgical site scenes, pixels in the captured surgical site scenes that correspond to the ureter tissue and pixels in the captured surgical site scenes that correspond to the non-ureter tissue outside the ureter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.