Patient-Specific 3D Visualization of the Liver and Vascular Structures and Interactive Surgical Planning System

Abstract

Computer-assisted diagnosis/surgery systems have had a significant influence on the diagnosis and surgical treatment of hepatic diseases. In this paper, we propose a novel simulation system for liver surgical planning that combines image processing and computer vision techniques. The proposed system is composed of three modules: liver segmentation, vessel extraction, and visualization/interaction. We first segment the liver region from a CT volume using K-means clustering and geodesic active contour algorithms. We then extract the vessels using multiscale filters. The third visualization/interaction module visualizes the vessels and prepares a virtual environment for the user to perform surgical procedures on the liver image. First, the internal structure of the liver together with the vessels is shown to the physician. Virtual surgery is then started. A toggling option makes it easy to view the internal structure of the liver or make it opaque during surgery. This system is expected to be useful for treatment/surgical planning and may even serve as a guided surgery system.