Medical image computing and computer-aided medical interventions applied to soft tissues. Work in progress in urology

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in computer-aided interventions for soft tissues, focusing on urology, highlighting new challenges, solutions, and industrial systems in minimally invasive and diagnostic procedures.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive survey of the main problems and technological solutions in computer-aided diagnosis and therapy of soft tissues, especially in urology.

Findings

Increase in research and development of urology-specific CAMI systems

Overview of robotization, image fusion, and surgical navigation techniques

Discussion of both research projects and industrial systems

Abstract

Until recently, Computer-Aided Medical Interventions (CAMI) and Medical Robotics have focused on rigid and non deformable anatomical structures. Nowadays, special attention is paid to soft tissues, raising complex issues due to their mobility and deformation. Mini-invasive digestive surgery was probably one of the first fields where soft tissues were handled through the development of simulators, tracking of anatomical structures and specific assistance robots. However, other clinical domains, for instance urology, are concerned. Indeed, laparoscopic surgery, new tumour destruction techniques (e.g. HIFU, radiofrequency, or cryoablation), increasingly early detection of cancer, and use of interventional and diagnostic imaging modalities, recently opened new challenges to the urologist and scientists involved in CAMI. This resulted in the last five years in a very significant increase of research and developments of computer-aided urology systems. In this paper, we propose a description of the main problems related to computer-aided diagnostic and therapy of soft tissues and give a survey of the different types of assistance offered to the urologist: robotization, image fusion, surgical navigation. Both research projects and operational industrial systems are discussed.