AutoSON

Automatic navigated intraoperative ultrasound imaging for brain tumor removal | Subproject: Development of innovative automatic functionalities within a research platform, scientific evaluation of the algorithms and clinical evaluation of the AutoSon system

Goal of the project AutoSon is the development of a networked assistance system to support neurosurgical interventions. The AutoSon system includes an expanded neurosurgical navigation system inter-connected with a research platform. The AutoSon system will interact through opened interfaces during all phases of the clinical workflow: the planning, execution and documentation of the operation.

The developed innovative system should make more efficient and secure the use of intraoperative 3D ultrasound imaging during tumor removal. The new functionalities include the automatic recognition of the currently used ultrasound transducer with its configuration parameters (depth, focus, current frequency and modality) and the automatic selection of the corresponding calibration data for the 3D reconstruction of an ultrasound volume. Moreover, the system should perform the intraoperative and semi-automatic segmentation of crucial brain structures and tumor tissue for targeted surgical applications . The extracted structures will be promptly presented to the neurosurgeon through the interfaces of the navigation system and the surgical microscope.