Feasibility study of new real-time three-dimensional imaging technology for spinal surgery navigation

Abstract

Spinal surgery, such as pedicle screw placement, is difficult and risky due to the complexity of the physiological characteristics of the spine. Although intraoperative image guidance using a C-arm or an O-arm can significantly improve the success rate of the procedure, it is time consuming and the person is exposed to X-ray radiation for a long time. To solve this problem, this paper aims to exploring the application of new real-time 3D imaging technology in spinal surgery. Firstly, a CT scan of the pig's spine bone about 20 cm in length was performed and the accurate 3D data was obtained. Then, the 3D reconstruction was performed using a TOF camera and a light field camera. At last, the accuracy of the results was compared. The experimental results show that although the TOF camera has a good real-time performance, its resolution and accuracy of 3D reconstruction are low. The multi-frame superposition method can improve the data accuracy. The real-time performance of the light field camera is slightly lower. And the point cloud acquired by the bone is sparse because the spine texture feature is not obvious. But the accuracy of the 3D reconstruction can be significantly improved after the aid of structured light illumination. Therefore, the two techniques about 3D imaging proposed in this paper have some certain development potential in real-time navigation for spinal surgery.