US 12,245,824 B2
Multi-destination procedure planning and guidance for endoscopic surgery
William E. Higgins, State College, PA (US); and Trevor Kuhlengel, University Park, PA (US)
Assigned to The Penn State Research Foundation, University Park, PA (US)
Appl. No. 18/838,873
Filed by The Penn State Research Foundation, University Park, PA (US)
PCT Filed Jan. 25, 2023, PCT No. PCT/US2023/011527
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Aug. 15, 2024,
PCT Pub. No. WO2023/146903, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 3, 2023.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/358,935, filed on Jul. 7, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/303,712, filed on Jan. 27, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2025/0017661 A1, Jan. 16, 2025
Int. Cl. A61B 34/10 (2016.01); A61B 1/00 (2006.01); A61B 1/04 (2006.01); G16H 20/40 (2018.01)
CPC A61B 34/10 (2016.02) [A61B 1/00009 (2013.01); A61B 1/00045 (2013.01); A61B 1/04 (2013.01); G16H 20/40 (2018.01); A61B 2034/107 (2016.02)] 12 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for planning a tour visiting a set of target diagnostic sites via endoscopy passing through a hollow organ system, said method comprising the steps of:
receiving a 3D pre-operative imaging scan depicting the diagnostic sites and hollow organ system;
receiving information on the target diagnostic sites in the 3D imaging scan;
computing a 3D virtual space of the hollow organ system from the 3D imaging scan;
computing a series of preliminary endoscopic routes leading to each diagnostic site, each preliminary endoscopic route consisting of a set of contiguous device poses through the hollow organ system that connect each target diagnostic site to all of the other target diagnostic sites, each pose consisting of its coordinates in the 3D virtual space and a set of vectors indicating a direction of travel through the hollow organ system;
defining a cost between each pair of diagnostic sites as the distance accumulated by the smallest set of contiguous poses connecting the pair of diagnostic sites together within the hollow organ system; and
computing an optimal tour having a minimum cost corresponding to the smallest set of contiguous poses that visit all of the target diagnostic sites once and only once.