Photogrammetric Advances to C-arm Use in Surgery

Abstract

C-arms are commonly used during orthopaedic surgeries to provide real-time static or dynamic fluoroscopic imaging. These devices are mostly utilized for qualitative assessment during operations; several advancements, such as C-arm tracking, must be accomplished to make them capable of providing quantitative measurements. This thesis presents in two major contributions to C-arm quantification: (1) development and testing of a monocular visual odometry method to track the C-arm base and (2) development and testing of a particular application, estimating the pose of an intramedullary (IM) nail for fracture surgery. The proposed base-tracking system can either be integrated with a C-arm joint tracking module or employed on its own, e.g. for steering. An IM-nail pose estimation method is proposed in this research that is capable of reporting the position and orientation of an inserted IM-nail. The offered IM-nail pose estimation method can help reduce both radiation exposure and time during surgery.