Projection Mapping for In-Situ Surgery Planning by the Example of DIEP Flap Breast Reconstruction

Nowadays, many surgical procedures require preoperative planning, mostly relying on data from 3D imaging techniques like computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. However, preoperative assessment of this data is carried out on the PC (using classical CT/MR viewing software) and not on the patient’s body itself. Therefore, surgeons need to transfer both their overall understanding of the patient’s individual anatomy and also specific markers and labels for important points from
the PC to the patient only with the help of imaginative power or approximative measurement. In order to close the gap between preoperative planning on the PC and surgery on the patient, we propose a system to directly project preoperative knowledge to the body surface by projection mapping. As a result, we are able to display both assigned labels and a volumetric and view-dependent view of the 3D data in-situ. Furthermore, we offer a method to interactively navigate through the data and add 3D markers directly in the projected volumetric view. We demonstrate the benefits of our approach using DIEP flap breast reconstruction as an example. By means of a small pilot study, we show that our method outperforms standard surgical planning in accuracy and can easily be understood and utilized even by persons without any medical knowledge.