title: Automatic Segmentation and Probe Guidance for Real-Time Assistance of Ultrasound-Guided Femoral Nerve Blocks.
abstract: Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia can be challenging, especially for inexperienced physicians. The goal of the proposed methods is to create a system that can assist a user in performing ultrasound-guided femoral nerve blocks. The system indicates in which direction the user should move the ultrasound probe to investigate the region of interest and to reach the target site for needle insertion. Additionally, the system provides automatic real-time segmentation of the femoral artery, the femoral nerve and the two layers fascia lata and fascia iliaca. This aids in interpretation of the 2-D ultrasound images and the surrounding anatomy in 3-D. The system was evaluated on 24 ultrasound acquisitions of both legs from six subjects. The estimated target site for needle insertion and the segmentations were compared with those of an expert anesthesiologist. Average target distance was 8.5 mm with a standard deviation of 2.5 mm. The mean absolute differences of the femoral nerve and the fascia segmentations were about 1-3 mm.
authors.affiliation: SINTEF Medical Technology, Trondheim, Norway; Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. Electronic address: ersmistad@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Smistad
authors.affiliation: SINTEF Medical Technology, Trondheim, Norway; Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Daniel Høyer
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Iversen
authors.affiliation: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Leidig
authors.affiliation: SINTEF Medical Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Janne Beate
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Lervik Bakeng
authors.affiliation: St. Olav Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Kaj Fredrik
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Johansen
authors.affiliation: SINTEF Medical Technology, Trondheim, Norway; Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lindseth
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005267:Femoral Nerve / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009407:Nerve Block / Q000379:methods*; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Assistant; Femoral nerve; Regional anesthesia; Segmentation