A Preliminary Study on an IMU-Based Surgery Assisting Method for Minimally Invasive Puncture of Intracranial Hematoma

Abstract

A navigation always plays a vital role during the minimally invasive puncture and drainage (MIPD) of intracranial hematoma (ICH). However, providing accurate navigation is very expensive and complex. This paper presents a low-cost method that supplies efficient and precise navigation information during operation. This method proposes a sensor fusion system with two Initial Measurement Units (IMU) and Computed Tomography (CT) to estimate the attitude (orientation) of puncture path and surgical tools in real-time. Here, the IMUs play the role of attitude (orientation) tracking. The one is the wearable IMU on the patient, tracking the patient's intracranial puncture path in real-time. The second is the IMU on the surgery needle, tracking the needle's orientation. The surgeon has the power to control the needle's orientation to match the puncture path's orientation to complete the puncture operation. The preliminary study was conducted to estimate the error of the two IMUs' orientation by calibrating them in the same coordinate system to explore this application's feasibility in surgery. The experimental results showed no significant difference between the two IMU measurements, and the mean error was within 1°. It suggested that two IMUs can work in the same coordinate system with high consistency. In the future, more experiment will be carried out for developing the method.