title: Tracked "Pick-Up" Ultrasound for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We present a novel "pick-up" ultrasound transducer for intraabdominal robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. Such a "pick-up" ultrasound transducer is inserted through an abdominal incision at the beginning of the procedure and remains in the abdominal cavity throughout, eliminating the need for a dedicated port or a patient bedside surgical assistant. The transducer has a handle that can be grasped in a repeatable manner using a da Vinci Prograsp tool, allowing the transducer to be accurately manipulated by the surgeon using the da Vinci Robot. This is one way to enable 3-D tracking of the transducer, and, thus, mapping of the vasculature. The 3-D vascular images can be used to register preoperative CT to intraoperative camera images.
  
  
  METHODS
  To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, we use an ultrasound vessel phantom to register a CT surface model to extracted ultrasound vessel models. The 3-D vascular phantom images are generated by segmenting B-mode images and tracking the pick-up ultrasound transducer with the da Vinci kinematics, internal electromagnetic sensor, or visible fiducials suitable for camera tracking.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reconstruction results using da Vinci kinematics for tracking give a target registration error of 5.4 ± 1.7 mm.
authors.forename: Caitlin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nguan
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rohling
authors.forename: Septimiu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salcudean
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D065287:Robotic Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional / Q000379:methods*