Method and Apparatus for Computer Aided Surgery
OwnerHani Haider, O. Barrerainventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A number of improvements are provided relating to computer aided surgery. The improvement relates to both the methods used during computer aided surgery and the devices used during such procedures. Some of the improvement relate to controlling the selection of which data to display during a procedure and/or how the data is displayed to aid the surgeon. Other improvements relate to the structure of the tools used during a procedure and how the tools can be controlled automatically to improve the efficiency of the procedure. Still other improvements relate to methods of providing feedback during a procedure to improve either the efficiency or quality, or both, for a procedure.
Claims25
A method for displaying patient information during a surgical procedure, comprising the steps of:
- creating a three dimensional representation of a portion of a patient to which a procedure is to be performed;
- identifying a portion of the three dimensional representation corresponding to a portion of tissue for which a surgical procedure is to be performed;
- displaying an orientation of the three dimensional representation during a surgical procedure
- performing a surgical procedure on the portion of the patient, using a surgical tool;
- tracking the surgical tool during the surgical procedure to obtain data regarding the position and orientation of the surgical tool relative to the patient;
- varying the display of the three dimensional representation during the surgical procedure in response to the data obtain during the tracking step.
An input device operable in connection with a position tracking system for identifying the three-dimensional location of reference points for a patient, comprising:
- a body having a surface for manually grasping the device;
- a tip for identifying a reference point for the patient;
- a tracking element for tracking the position of the tip;
- and
- a sensor for detecting whether the tip is in contact with the patient.
A registration block operable in connection with a surgical tool that is connectable with a surgical instrument having a tracking element operable to track the position of the surgical instrument, comprising;
- a body;
- a socket in the body configured to cooperate with a tip of the surgical tool, wherein the socket has a bottom;
- and
- a position tracking element mounted on the body;
- wherein the position of the bottom of the socket relative to the position of the position tracking element is pre-determined such that displacing a tip of the surgical tool into engagement with the bottom of the socket identifies the position of the tip relative to the position tracking element of the block, which in turn identifies the position of the tip relative to the tracking element of the surgical instrument.
A method for performing a computer assisted surgical procedure, comprising the steps of;
- performing a surgical procedure on a surgical site comprising a portion of a patient;
- assessing the surgical site to obtain data regarding the portion of the patient after the surgical procedure is performed;
- communicating the data with a microprocessor;
- using the microprocessor to analyze the data to determine whether one or more procedures need to be performed on the patient.
A surgical instrument comprising;
- a cutting tool having a cutting tip for cutting tissue;
- a drive mechanism for driving the cutting tool;
- an alignment element positioned adjacent the cutting tip, wherein the alignment element comprises an anchoring element for piercing the tissue to align the cutting tip at a desired location relative to the tissue.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.