An Augmented Reality Platform for Preoperative Surgical Planning

Researching in new technologies for diagnosis, planning and medical treatment have allowed the development of computer tools that provide new ways of representing data obtained from patient’s medical images such as com-puted tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this sense, augmented reality (AR) technolo-gies provide a new form of data representation by combining the common analysis using images and the ability to superimpose virtual 3D representations of the organs of the human body in the real environment. In this pa-per the development of a generic computer platform based on augmented reality technology for surgical pre-operative planning is presented. In particular, the surgeon can navigate in the 3D models of the patient’s organs in order to have the possibility to perfectly understand the anatomy and plan in the best way the surgical proce-dure. In addition, a touchless interaction with the virtual organs is available thanks to the use of an armband pro-vided of electromiographic muscle sensors. To validate the system, we focused in a navigation through aorta ar-tery for mitral valve repair surgery.