Surgical tracking methods and fiber optic shape sensing devices thereof

A method for surgical instrument location tracking, the method comprising:

• attaching a fiber optical shape sensing (FOSS) device to at least one surgical instrument disposed in a surgical environment, wherein the FOSS device comprises an optical fiber comprising at least one core comprising at least one fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor;
• generating reflectivity data based on detected reflection from the at least one FBG sensor of broadband light introduced by a light source to the at least one core of the optical fiber of the FOSS device;
• registering one or more portions of the optical fiber of the FOSS device within a coordinate system of the surgical environment;
• tracking a location of the one or more portions of the optical fiber of the FOSS device based on the generated reflectivity data and the registration;
• and
• adjusting one or more graphical displays output to a display device based on the tracked location, wherein the one or more graphical displays comprise a representation associated with at least a portion of the at least one surgical instrument.

A method for surgical instrument flexibility tracking, the method comprising:

• attaching a fiber optical shape sensing (FOSS) device to at least one surgical instrument disposed in a surgical environment, wherein the FOSS device comprises an optical fiber comprising a plurality of cores each comprising at least one fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor;
• generating reflectivity data based on detected reflection from the at least one FBG sensor of broadband light introduced by a light source to the plurality of cores of the optical fiber of the FOSS device;
• determining a flexion of the one or more portions of the optical fiber of the FOSS device based on the generated reflectivity data;
• and
• automatically controlling a location or an operation of the at least one surgical instrument based on the determined flexion of the one or more portions of the optical fiber of the FOSS device.