System and method for interactive haptic positioning of a medical device

A haptic surgical system, comprising:

• a computer-aided surgery system;
• a haptic device coupled to a surgical instrument and said computer-aided surgery system;
• and
• a processor programmed to:
• define a virtual surface to which a target region of an anatomy of a patient is to be sculpted using the surgical instrument;
• generate a haptic interaction wrench based at least in part on a current pose of said
• surgical instrument relative to the virtual surface to guide a user in moving said surgical instrument along the virtual surface when sculpting the anatomy of the patient.

A surgical method, comprising:

• defining a virtual pathway to a target region of an anatomy of a patient on whom a surgical procedure is to be performed and a virtual boundary defining an anatomical structure of the patient to be avoided;
• storing the defined virtual pathway and the defined virtual boundary;
• manually using a surgical instrument attached to a haptic feedback device to perform a surgical procedure on the patient such that a surgeon is provided with direct tactile feedback from interaction between the surgical instrument and the anatomy of the patient;
• supplementing the direct tactile feedback with (1) virtual pathway haptic feedback to the surgeon indicative of interaction between the surgical instrument the stored virtual pathway and (2) protective haptic feedback to the surgeon indicative of interaction between the surgical instrument and the virtual boundary.

A method of performing haptic guided computer assisted surgery on a joint of a patient, the method comprising:

• displaying a diagnostic image of the patient's joint;
• defining at least one virtual surface in a target region of the patient's joint;
• during the surgery,
• moving a manual input device to move a bone cutting tool along the virtual surface in the target region of the patient's joint to remove bone,
• applying haptic feedback to the manual input device indicative of a relationship of the bone cutting tool to the virtual surface to guide a surgeon using the manual input device to move the bone cutting tool along the virtual surface, and
• modifying the haptic feedback based on a current position and orientation of the bone cutting tool to guide the surgeon to move the bone cutting tool from the current position and orientation to a desired position and orientation relative to said target region.

A system for haptic positioning of medical device coupled with a haptic device during a medical procedure, the system comprising:

• a display which displays a diagnostic image of an anatomy of a patient containing a target region in which the medical procedure is to be performed using the medical device;
• a tracking system which tracks a pose of the medical device relative to the target region;
• a processor programmed to:
• define a virtual pathway based on user input information depicting a proposed pathway to be followed by the medical device relative to the target region of the anatomy of the patient,
• control the display to display a visual representation of the virtual pathway and a current pose of the medical device on the displayed image of the anatomy;
• and
• a haptic feedback system which provides haptic feedback to the haptic device indicative of (1) an interaction between the medical device and a region of anatomy of the patient to be avoided and (2) a relationship of the medical device to the virtual pathway.