When this technology is used by surgeons during liver surgery, it can help them to access the tumours more quickly and with less complications.
When operating on a patient with liver tumours, surgeons rely heavily on preoperative imaging, typically CT and MRI scans, to plan the procedure. These images provide a highly detailed view of the patient’s anatomy and form the basis for surgical planning. However, because they are acquired before the operation begins, they do not reflect what is actually happening inside the body during surgery.
During the procedure, surgeons often use intraoperative ultrasound to visualize the liver in real time. This provides up-to-date information, but ultrasound images can be more difficult to interpret and do not always offer the same comprehensive overview as CT or MRI.
If these detailed preoperative images can be combined with real-time ultrasound, the surgeon gains access to a more complete and continuously updated “map” of the liver throughout the operation. Achieving this is technologically challenging, but it has the potential to significantly improve surgical precision.
SINTEF researchers work in close collaboration with surgeons at St. Olavs hospital to make this technology a reality. Using advanced software and navigation techniques, we can integrate different imaging modalities and present them in a way that helps surgeons locate tumours more accurately. The ultimate goal is to enable safer, faster, and more precise surgical procedures.
The technology combines CT images of the liver acquired before surgery, with ultrasound images taken during the procedure. A 3D representation of the CT is shown on the screen.
Ole Vegard Solberg (left), research engineer at SINTEF Digital, and Torgrim Lie, research scientist at SINTEF Digital, bring together different technologies to navigate through a liver phantom.
Using this pointer, the researchers can mark locations on the liver. This is an important step to match the CT images to the patient’s liver during surgery. In a real operation, the surgeon would point to landmarks on the outside of the patient’s body rather than directly on the liver.
The CT image can be used as a “map” of the tumours inside the liver.
The technology is still under development and is currently being used only in research projects. However, it is based on similar solutions that have already been successfully applied in neurosurgery. In the brain, the conditions are more stable because the tissue moves less during surgery.
By improving visualization and navigation during surgery, the project aims to enable more precise procedures, provide better decision support for surgeons, and establish a foundation for future image-guided and AI-assisted liver surgery.
The research is supported by the Ministry of Health and Care Services and the EU.
All photos: Mari Aftret Mørtvedt / SINTEF
Health Research in SINTEF Digital
Medical Technology
We develop medical technology that makes diagnostics, treatment and training safer, more precise and more accessible.
Our core expertise lies in ultrasound, image-guided intervensions, medical software and simulation for the benefit of patients, clinicians and society.
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