Image-guided techniques in renal and hepatic interventions.
BACKGROUND
Development of new imaging technologies and advances in computing power have enabled the physicians to perform medical interventions on the basis of high-quality 3D and/or 4D visualization of the patient's organs. Preoperative imaging has been used for planning the surgery, whereas intraoperative imaging has been widely employed to provide visual feedback to a clinician when he or she is performing the procedure. In the past decade, such systems demonstrated great potential in image-guided minimally invasive procedures on different organs, such as brain, heart, liver and kidneys. This article focuses on image-guided interventions and surgery in renal and hepatic surgeries.


METHODS
A comprehensive search of existing electronic databases was completed for the period of 2000-2011. Each contribution was assessed by the authors for relevance and inclusion. The contributions were categorized on the basis of the type of operation/intervention, imaging modality and specific techniques such as image fusion and augmented reality, and organ motion tracking.


RESULTS
As a result, detailed classification and comparative study of various contributions in image-guided renal and hepatic interventions are provided. In addition, the potential future directions have been sketched.


CONCLUSIONS
With a detailed review of the literature, potential future trends in development of image-guided abdominal interventions are identified, namely, growing use of image fusion and augmented reality, computer-assisted and/or robot-assisted interventions, development of more accurate registration and navigation techniques, and growing applications of intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging.
Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR), London Health Science Center, London, ON, Canada; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Nima
N
Najmaei
Kamal
K
Mostafavi
Sahar
S
Shahbazi
Mahdi
M
Azizian
D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D009392:Nephrectomy / Q000379:methods*; D012371:Robotics / Q000379:methods*; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*