An augmented reality and high-speed optical tracking system for laparoscopic surgery

While minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery can help reduce blood loss, reduce hospital time, and shorten recovery time compared to open surgery, it has the disadvantages of limited field of view and difficulty in locating subsurface targets. Our proposed solution applies an augmented reality (AR) system to overlay pre-operative images, such as those from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), onto the target organ in the user's real-world environment. Our system can provide critical information regarding the location of subsurface lesions to guide surgical procedures in real time. An infrared motion tracking camera system was employed to obtain real-time position data of the patient and surgical instruments. To perform hologram registration, fiducial markers were used to track and map virtual coordinates to the real world. In this study, phantom models of each organ were constructed to test the reliability and accuracy of the AR-guided laparoscopic system. Root mean square error (RMSE) was used to evaluate the targeting accuracy of the laparoscopic interventional procedure. Our results demonstrated a registration error of 2.42 ± 0.79 mm and a procedural targeting error of 4.17 ± 1.63 mm using our AR-guided laparoscopic system that will be further refined for potential clinical procedures.