Navigation information overlay onto ultrasound imagery

A surgical instrument navigation system using a real-time ultrasound image comprising:

• means for generating an icon of a surgical instrument and overlaying the icon on the real-time ultrasound image, the icon of the surgical instrument representing the real-time position of the surgical instrument projected into the real-time ultrasound image;
• means for extracting a two-dimensional image from another image modality;
• means for overlaying the icon of the surgical instrument on the two-dimensional image extracted from another image modality;
• means for blending the real-time ultrasound image and the extracted two dimensional image to create a blended representation;
• and
• a display for displaying the blended representation.

A system for representing a real-time position of a surgical instrument and its trajectory in a plurality of real-time ultrasound images comprising:

• means for generating a plurality of icons of a surgical instrument corresponding to the plurality of real-time ultrasound images representing a plurality of orthogonal views;
• means for extracting a plurality of two-dimensional images from another image modality;
• means for overlaying the icons of the surgical instrument on the two-dimensional images extracted from another image modality;
• and
• a display which displays the plurality of the real-time ultrasound images representing the plurality of orthogonal views adjacent to the corresponding plurality of two-dimensional images extracted from another image modality based upon an operator's selection.

A method for surgical navigation using three-dimensional image data-sets comprising:

• acquiring a three-dimensional image data-set;
• reconstructing the three-dimensional data-set into an orthogonal data-set;
• displaying the orthogonal data-set as a three-dimensional image;
• overlaying an ultrasound image onto the three-dimensional image creating an overlaid image;
• and
• displaying an iconic representation of a localized surgical instrument onto the overlaid image.

A surgical instrument navigation system comprising:

• an ultrasound machine;
• a video imaging device;
• a computer coupled to both the ultrasound machine and the video imaging device;
• a first localizer coupled to the ultrasound machine;
• a second localizer coupled to the video imaging device;
• a memory coupled to the computer, the memory including computer instructions that when executed by the computer cause the computer to overlay the video images acquired by the video imaging device onto the ultrasound image acquired by the ultrasound device such that the two images correspond to a common coordinate system;
• and
• a display that displays the overlaid images.