System method and computer program product, for computer aided surgery

A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising the following operations:

• receiving an output status indication generated by video imagery, captured by plural video cameras, of a spine and of at least one pattern projected onto the spine, wherein Near Infra-Red (NIR) light, having a wavelength to which the plural cameras are responsive, is used to project said at least one pattern, wherein at least one of said plural video cameras comprises a filter that (i) passes at least said wavelength to which the plural cameras are responsive, and (ii) blocks visible light;
• tracking, with at least millimeter-level accuracy, at least one vertebra of the spine, using said at least one pattern, which is known to the method, wherein based on continuous imaging of vertebra, the method provides continuous individual vertebra-level tracking;
• and accordingly
• providing feedback with at least millimeter-level accuracy to the surgeon during a surgical procedure, thereby to provide direct tracking of vertebrae rather than of markers attached to the spine, wherein said feedback comprises three-dimensional (3D) depth reconstruction at sub-millimeter accuracy in an operating room lit with visible light by using said NIR light, for projection of said at least one pattern, allowing image contrast high enough to identify the at least one pattern on the video imagery despite illumination, by said visible light, of the operating room.

A surgery-planning method to enable a surgeon to execute surgery planning without requiring additional radiation exposure, such as CT and/or other X-ray modalities such as fluoroscopy, the method comprising:

• a. loading a selected pre-operative CT image into surgery planning software
• b. showing separate vertebrae and bone features, thereby to provide presented vertebrae;
• and
• c. placing selected implantable devices in planned positions on said presented vertebrae using a GUI, thereby to provide a plan.