System and method for surgical instrument disablement via image-guided position feedback

Abstract

A system for selectively disabling a surgical instrument operating in a surgical site of a region of interest of a living subject. In one embodiment, the system includes means for noninvasively placing a number of fiducial markers in an anatomic space of the region of interest of the living subject, means for pre-operatively measuring a location of each fiducial marker in the anatomic space, an imaging acquisition device for pre-operatively acquiring an image volume from the region of interest of the living subject, a probe for intra-operatively monitoring a location of the surgical instrument in the anatomic space, and a controller configured to perform the steps of identifying a centroid of each fiducial marker in the image volume, registering the identified centroid of each fiducial marker in the image volume to the measured location of the corresponding fiducial marker in the anatomic space to determine a registration transformation, mapping the monitored location of the surgical instrument in the anatomic space onto a corresponding location in the image volume by an inverse of the registration transformation, and generating a signal to disable the surgical instrument when the mapped location of the surgical instrument is substantially close to a boundary of the surgical site of the region of interest in the image volume.

1 - 19 . (canceled) 
     
     
         20 . A system for selectively disabling a surgical instrument operating in a surgical site of a region of interest of a living subject, wherein the surgical instrument has a distal end portion and is operable by a surgeon during a surgery, comprising:
 (a) a probe for intra-operatively monitoring a physiological condition of the living subject in the region of interest during the surgery; and   (b) a controller operatively coupled with the surgical instrument and the probe, respectively, and configured to perform during the surgery the steps of:
 (i) determining a variation of the physiological condition of the living subject from an initial state of the living subject in the region of interest; and 
 (ii) generating a signal to disable the surgical instrument when the variation of the physiological condition is greater then a predetermined value, wherein the probe comprises at least one of a needle electrode placed in the region of interest of the living subject, a Doppler vascular probe, a temperature sensing device, an oxygenation detector, and a tissue boundary detector. 
   
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 20 , further comprising at least one of a display and an audio device for visually and/or audibly displaying the intra-operatively monitored physiological condition of the living subject in the region of interest, respectively. 
     
     
         22 . (canceled) 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 20 , wherein the physiological condition comprises an electromyogram of electrical activities of muscles of the region of interest of the living subject. 
     
     
         24 . (canceled) 
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 20 , wherein the physiological condition comprises a flow rate of blood vessels of the region of interest of the living subject. 
     
     
         26 . (canceled) 
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 20 , wherein the physiological condition comprises a temperature of tissues of the region of interest of the living subject. 
     
     
         28 . (canceled) 
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 20 , wherein the physiological condition comprises a venous oxygenation saturation and an arterial oxygenation saturation of the region of interest of the living subject. 
     
     
         30 . (canceled) 
     
     
         31 . The system of  claim 20 , wherein the tissue boundary detector comprises at least one of an ultrasound sensing device, an infrared radiation sensing device, an ultraviolet radiation sensing device, a fluorescent radiation sensing device, and a video frame device. 
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the physiological condition comprises a tissue type identification of tissues at the distal end portion of the surgical instrument in the region of interest of the living subject. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 32 , wherein the physiological condition comprises a volume of suction from the region of interest of the living subject. 
     
     
         34 . A method for selectively disabling a surgical instrument operating in a surgical site of a region of interest of a living subject, wherein the surgical instrument has a distal end portion and is operable by a surgeon during a surgery, comprising the steps of:
 (a) intra-operatively monitoring a physiological condition of the living subject in the region of interest during the surgery;   (b) determining a variation of the physiological condition of the living subject from an initial state of the living subject in the region of interest, during the surgery; and   (c) generating a signal to disable the surgical instrument when the variation of the physiological condition is greater than a predetermined value, wherein the physiological condition comprises at least one of an electromyogram of electrical activities of muscles of the region of interest of the living subject, a flow rate of blood vessels of the region of interest of the living subject, a temperature of tissues of the region of interest of the living subject, a venous oxygenation saturation and an arterial oxygenation saturation of the region of interest of the living subject, a tissue type identification of tissues at the distal end portion of the surgical instrument in the region of interest of the living subject, and a volume of suction from the region of interest of the living subject.   
     
     
         35 - 40 . (canceled)