Method of determination of access areas from 3D patient images

1. A method for automatically determining at least one pre-operative portal for arthroscopy from acquired pre-operative medical images of a bone of a patient, said method comprising the following steps:

i) constructing a 3D surface of the bone from the 3D image of the bone;

ii) automatically determining anatomical landmarks of the bone from the 3D surface;

iii) determining a bone reference coordinate system from the anatomical landmarks;

iv) selecting at least one predetermined portal in a database of positions of predetermined portals previously defined on a 3D model representing a bone of a reference person, wherein the database of positions of predetermined portal comprises a data base of arthroscopic portals defined by a tool entry point and a direction for each of the arthroscopic portals;

v) determining a transform between the bone reference coordinate system and the model coordinate system so that the bone of the patient represented in the bone reference coordinate system and the bone of the reference person represented in the model coordinate system are matched in size, in position and/or shape; and

vi) inferring from the transform and the at least one predetermined portal the preoperative portal.

2. A method for simulating arthroscopic Images before surgery, comprising the steps of

determining at least one pre-operative portal by the method of claim 1 ,

placing a virtual arthroscope at said pre-operative portal and

computing a virtual arthroscopic Image of the surgical area obtained by the virtual arthroscope.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pre-operative portal is an arthroscopic portal defined by a tool entry point and a direction.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising inferring through the transform critical areas containing vessels or nerves from the model coordinate system to the bone reference coordinate system.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transform is determined through analytical and/or geometric process.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transform is determined as a continuous function from the model coordinate system to the bone reference coordinate system.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the transform is determined through a non-rigid image-to-image or surface-to-surface registration algorithm.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pre-operative portal is an arthroscopic portal defined by a tool entry point and a direction, and wherein a virtual arthroscopic image is constructed from the arthroscopic portal.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising generating planning information and superimposing the planning information onto the virtual arthroscopic image.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein planning information is a color map representing amount of bone to be removed.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein planning information is a projection of an optimal surface to be built onto the bone.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising generating an adjusted virtual arthroscopic image by adjusting and registering the virtual arthroscopic image to real arthroscopic image of the bone.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein registering the virtual arthroscopic image to real arthroscopic image of the bone comprises the following steps:

i) initial registration by using the inferred portal position;

ii) adjustment of registration using image to image registration.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising generating planning information and generating a superimposed image by superimposing the planning information onto the adjusted virtual arthroscopic image.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising generating planning information and superimposing planning information and the adjusted virtual arthroscopic image onto the real arthroscopic image of the bone.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising displaying the superimposed image and the real arthroscopic image side by side.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the manual modification of the pre-operative portal around its initial computed position.