Modeling and preoperative planning for kidney surgery

We now explain the principle of laparoscopy and discuss the challenges it arises. The main potential users of our methods are surgeons that use the minimal invasive surgeries technique a.k.a. laparoscopy in renal surgeries. One such surgery may be partial nephrectomy surgery, which is a resection of a part of the kidney that has a tumor.

In laparoscopic surgery, few keyholes are made in the patient body. Through the trocars inserted in those keyholes, 5-10mm diameter instruments can be introduced by the surgeon into the abdomen. In most surgeries, the abdominal space is filled with CO2 to create a visible working.space. A small video camera is introduced through one of the trocars, with which the abdominal space is shown on a monitor in the surgery room. The surgeon does the operation looking at the monitor, while controlling through the other trocars the graspers, scissors and clip appliers. Only several operations can be made by minimal invasive methods, including partial nephrectomy.

The main advantage of minimal invasive surgery is the reduced damage to other tissues. This implies reduced pain due to smaller incisions and hemorrhaging, and shorter recovery time. The laparoscopic surgery is challenging to the surgeon, since it requires very good hand-eye coordination. The surgeon sees the operated organs on a monitor, in only partial field of view, and limited resolution. This can cause a problem of anatomic recognition. Also, the camera maneuvering is bounded to only several views, so some important details might be hidden behind other anatomical parts or smoke generated by using burning techniques. Important anatomical parts like blood vessels may be hidden inside organs.