Planning, navigation and simulation systems and methods for minimally invasive therapy

A system for planning one or more surgical trajectory paths to one or more targets in tissue within a patient's body, comprising:

• a) a storage memory device configured to store therein one or more pre-operative imaging data sets from one or more imaging modalities of an anatomical portion of the patient's body, at least one of the one or more imaging data sets being one or more diffusion MRI data sets;
• and
• b) a computer processor in communication with the storage memory device programmed for
• i) producing, from the one or more pre-operative imaging data sets, images and related data of a volume of the anatomical portion of the patient's body containing one or more entry points into the tissue and one or more targets to be approached, at least one of the related data being tractography of the volume of the anatomical portion produced from the one or more diffusion MRI data sets, and
• ii) storing the images and related data of the volume;
• and
• c) a computer user interface in communication with the computer processor for
• i) receiving from the processor the one or more targets to be approached during a surgical procedure and storing locations of the one or more targets;
• ii) displaying tractography and the other images of the volume of the anatomical portion along with the locations of the one or more targets;
• iii) receiving from the processor the one or more entry points into the patient's tissue;
• iv) producing and displaying one or more potential surgical trajectory paths from the one or more entry points to the one or more targets, and their interaction with the tractography and other selected anatomical features in the volume of the anatomical portion;
• v) accepting a user selection of one or more surgical trajectory paths from the one or more potential surgical trajectory paths;
• and
• vi) storing on the memory device one or more surgical trajectory paths.

A method executed on a computer for planning one or more surgical trajectory paths to one or more targets in tissue within a patient's body, comprising

• a) storing in a storage memory device one or more pre-operative imaging data sets from one or more imaging modalities of an anatomical portion of the patient's body, at least one of the one or more imaging data sets being one or more diffusion MRI data sets;
• and
• b) processing the one or more imaging data sets, using a computer processor, for
• producing from the one or more pre-operative imaging data sets, one or more images and related data of a volume of the anatomical portion of the patient's body containing one or more entry points into the tissue and one or more targets to be approached, at least one of the related data being tractography of the volume of the anatomical portion produced from the one or more diffusion MRI data sets, and
• c) storing in a storage memory device the images and related data of the volume,
• d) receiving through a computer user interface a user selection of the one or more target locations to be approached during a surgical procedure and storing the one or more target locations in the storage memory device,
• e) displaying the images and related data volume
• f) receiving through a computer user interface a user selection of the one or more entry points into the patient's tissue;
• g) displaying one or more potential surgical trajectory paths from the one or more entry points to the one or more targets, and their interaction with the tractography and other selected anatomical features in the volume of the anatomical portions;
• h) accepting through a computer user interface a user selection of one or more surgical trajectory paths from the one or more potential surgical trajectory paths;
• and
• i) storing in the storage memory device the one or more surgical trajectory paths.

A computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program for planning one or more surgical trajectory paths to one or more targets in tissue within a patient's body, the computer program being programmed with steps, which, when executed on a computer, comprises:

• a) storing in a storage memory device one or more pre-operative imaging data sets from one or more imaging modalities of an anatomical portion of the patient's body, at least one of the one or more imaging data sets being one or more diffusion MRI data sets;
• and
• b) processing the one or more imaging data sets, using a computer processor, for producing from the one or more pre-operative imaging data sets, one or more images and related data of a volume of the anatomical portion of the patient's body containing one or more entry points into the tissue and one or more targets to be approached, at least one of the related data being tractography of the volume of the anatomical portion produced from the one or more diffusion MRI data sets, and
• c) storing in a storage memory device the images and related data of the volume,
• d) receiving through a computer user interface a user selection of the one or more target locations to be approached during a surgical procedure and storing the one or more target locations in the storage memory device,
• e) displaying the images and related data volume
• f) receiving through a computer user interface a user selection of the one or more entry points into the patient's tissue;
• g) displaying one or more potential surgical trajectory paths from the one or more entry points to the one or more targets, and their interaction with the tractography and other selected anatomical features in the volume of the anatomical portions;
• h) accepting through a computer user interface a user selection of one or more surgical trajectory paths from the one or more potential surgical trajectory paths;
• and
• i) storing in the storage memory device the one or more surgical trajectory paths.