Use of wavelet energy for spinal cord vibration analysis during spinal surgery

Abstract

An online non-contact measurement system using a laser displacement sensor was developed for obtaining the vibration amplitude of spinal cord and hard tissue. The discrete wavelet transform was used to extract the distinctive features of tissue vibration signals. The spinal cord and spinal cancellous bone can be discriminated by the comparison of wavelet energy over a characteristic scale. We also derived the integro-differential equation of motion to describe the spinal cord vibration excited by the motion of bone. Experimental results show that the method works well in identifying spinal cord and bone. However, available viscoelastic constants cannot describe the high-frequency features of spinal cord. The examined issue of tissue vibration due to the operation power device is a significant problem. The proposed method can be used by a surgery robot, and then spinal surgery may greatly benefit from the enhanced safety of robotics.