System for indicating the position of a surgical probe within a head on an image of the head

A system for use with a part of a body of a patient, said system comprising:

• an ultrasound probe adapted to be positioned adjacent to and scanning the body part;
• means, responsive to the ultrasound probe, for generating an ultrasound image of the body part corresponding to the position of the ultrasound probe;
• means for determining the position of the ultrasound probe relative to the body part, wherein the determining means comprises
• reference points means having a position in fixed relation to the body part for providing reference points, said scanned images including reference images corresponding to the reference points means;
• reference means having a location outside the body part for providing a reference;
• first means for determining the position of the ultrasound probe relative to the reference means;
• second means for determining the position of the reference points means of the body part relative to the reference means so that the position of the ultrasound probe relative to the reference points means of the body part is a known position;
• and
• means for translating the known position of the ultrasound probe to provide a translated position within a coordinate system corresponding to the scanned images of the body part;
• means for scanning the body part to create scanned images thereof;
• and
• means, responsive to the scanning means, for generating a scanned image of the body part corresponding to the determined position of the ultrasound probe relative to the body part whereby the ultrasound image of the body part corresponds to and may be compared with the scanned image of the body part.

A method for use with a part of the body of a patient, said method comprising the steps of:

• scanning the body part with a ultrasound probe positioned adjacent the body part;
• generating in response to the scanning step an ultrasound image of the body part corresponding to the position of the ultrasound probe;
• determining the position of the ultrasound probe relative to the body part, wherein the determining step comprises the steps of
• positioning an array in communication with the ultrasound probe;
• first determining the position of the ultrasound probe relative to the array;
• second determining the position of the body part relative to the array;
• and
• translating the position of the ultrasound probe as determined by the first determining step into a coordinate system corresponding to the position of the body part as determined by the second determining step;
• scanning the body part to create scanned images thereof;
• and
• generating in response to the second scanning step a scanned image of the body part corresponding to the determined position of the ultrasound probe relative to the body part whereby the ultrasound image of the body part corresponds to and may be compared with the scanned image of the body part.

A method for use with a part of the body of a patient, said method comprising the steps of:

• scanning the body part with an ultrasound probe positioned adjacent the body part;
• generating in response to the scanning step an ultrasound image of the body part corresponding to the position of the ultrasound probe;
• scanning the body part to create scanned images thereof;
• determining the position of the ultrasound probe relative to the body part, wherein the determining step comprises the steps of
• determining the position of the ultrasound probe relative to a reference means having a position in fixed relation to the body part;
• determining the position of the body part relative to the reference means so that the position of the ultrasound probe relative to the body part is a known position;
• and
• translating the known position of the ultrasound probe to provide a translated position within a coordinate system corresponding to the scanned images of the body part;
• and
• generating in response to the second scanning step a scanned image of the body part corresponding to the determined position of the ultrasound probe relative to the body part whereby the ultrasound image of the body part corresponds to and may be compared with the scanned image of the body part.

A system for providing a display of a scan of a scanning technology, the display showing a cross section of a particular position within the body, said system comprising:

• reference points means having a position in relation to the body for providing reference points;
• means for generating images of the body, said images including reference images corresponding to the reference points means;
• reference means having a position outside the body for providing a reference;
• an ultrasound probe having a position and generating an ultrasound image of the body;
• first means for determining the position of the ultrasound probe relative to the reference means;
• second means for determining the position of the reference points means of the body relative to the reference means so that the position of the ultrasound probe relative to the reference points means of the body is a known position;
• means for translating the known position of the ultrasound probe to provide a translated position within a coordinate system corresponding to the images of the body;
• and
• means for displaying an image of the body to provide a displayed image which corresponds to the translated position of the ultrasound probe and for displaying the ultrasound image of the body whereby the displayed image and the ultrasound image correspond to each other.