System and method for dynamic validation, correction of registration for surgical navigation

1. A computer-implemented method of detecting registration error during a medical procedure by way of a surgical navigation system comprising a tracking system, the tracking system having an imaging system, the method comprising:

acquiring, in real-time, using an actual camera having a virtual camera aligned therewith, intraoperative imaging of a surgical field containing one or more real objects, the one or more real objects being previously registered with one or more corresponding virtual objects, the actual camera and the one or more real objects being previously registered, via the tracking system, to a common coordinate frame relative to a tracked reference marker, and the tracked reference marker disposed in a fixed position relative to a patient anatomy;

displaying the intraoperative imaging on a display of a display system;

acquiring, using the virtual camera, virtual imaging containing the one or more virtual objects in the common coordinate frame;

overlaying, in real-time during the procedure, the virtual imaging onto the intraoperative imaging on the display;

detecting any misalignment between any one of the one or more previously registered real objects contained in the intraoperative imaging and the corresponding virtual object contained in the virtual imaging and overlaid on the intraoperative imaging, wherein a presence of misalignment is indicative of registration error between the virtual object and the corresponding real object, and wherein a coordinate frame of the surgical navigation system is spatially registered with a coordinate frame of patient imaging data through respective alignment of corresponding pairs of virtual points and actual points;

automatically correcting the misalignment based on a difference between local tissue characteristics and virtual instrument representations at a location being focused and a live video stream of the surgical field, thereby providing immediate local correction of registration, automatically correcting comprising nonlinearly manipulating a rendering of the patient imaging and the virtual imaging to align with the intraoperative imaging, nonlinearly manipulating comprising using optical flow to generate an alignment with real objects; and

globally applying the correction of registration to the imaging system, the tracking system, and the display system, thereby providing dynamic validation and re-registration, and thereby eliminating need to reposition a patient.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, if a misalignment is detected in the detecting step, further comprising:

applying at least one of translating, rotating, skewing, and scaling of the virtual object in the common coordinate frame to align the virtual object with the corresponding real object in the common coordinate frame for re-registering the virtual object; and

assigning the reregistered virtual object as the previously registered virtual object in the common coordinate frame.

3. The method according to claim 2 ,

wherein at least one of the one or more real objects comprises an anatomical part undergoing the medical procedure, and

wherein at least one of the one or more pre-registered virtual objects in the virtual image comprises a pre-operative image of the anatomical part.

4. The method according to claim 2 ,

wherein at least one of the one or more real objects comprises a medical instrument, and

wherein at least one of the one or more pre-registered virtual objects in the virtual image comprises a virtual image of at least one medical instruments.

5. The method according to claim 1 ,

wherein at least one of the one or more real objects comprises an anatomical part undergoing the medical procedure,

wherein at least one of the one or more pre-registered virtual objects in the virtual image comprises a pre-operative image of the anatomical part,

wherein at least one of the one or more real objects comprises a medical instrument, and

wherein at least one of the one or more preregistered virtual objects in the virtual image comprises a virtual image of at least one medical instruments.

6. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the anatomical part comprises a brain of a human patient.

7. The method according to claim 6 ,

wherein said surgical field comprises landmarks, and

wherein the landmarks comprises at least one of morphological features intrinsically associated with the brain, a head of the human patient, and a face of the human patient.

8. The method according to claim 6 ,

wherein said surgical field comprises landmarks, and

wherein the landmarks comprise a plurality of fiducials placed in fixed and known positions with respect to the brain of the human patient.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the plurality of fiducials comprises at least one of a plurality of active fiducials and a plurality of passive fiducials.

10. The method according to claim 6 ,

wherein said surgical field comprises a plurality of landmarks,

wherein the plurality of landmarks comprises at least one of a plurality of morphological features intrinsically associated with the anatomical part and a plurality of fiducials placed in preselected positions with respect to said anatomical part, and

wherein said plurality of fiducials are disposed in a field of view of a tracking device.

11. The method according to claim 6 ,

wherein at least one of the one or more real objects comprises a surgical port, and

wherein at least one of the one or more preregistered virtual objects in the virtual image comprises a virtual image of the surgical port.

12. The method according to claim 10 , using a computer processor programmed with instructions, further comprising:

receiving input the input specifying at least one of translating, rotating, skewing, and scaling the virtual object in the coordinate frame of said surgical navigation system to align the virtual object with its corresponding real object in the coordinate frame of said surgical navigation system;

re-registering the virtual object, thereby providing a re-registered virtual object;

storing the re-registered virtual object in the coordinate frame of said surgical navigation system; and

assigning the re-registered virtual object as a previously registered virtual object.

13. The method according to claim 10 ,

wherein, in the event of a misalignment between at least one of said one or more virtual objects and its corresponding real object at a pre-selected time, performing at least one of translating, rotating, skewing, and scaling of the virtual object in the coordinate frame of said surgical navigation system to align the virtual object with the corresponding real object in the coordinate frame of said surgical navigation system and re-registering the virtual object, and

wherein said computer processor is programmed with instructions to store the re-registered virtual object in the coordinate frame of said surgical navigation system and assigning the re-registered virtual object as the previously registered virtual object.

14. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the anatomical part comprises a brain of a human patient.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein acquiring the virtual image comprises using one of CT imaging, MRI imaging, X-Ray imaging, PET imaging, or ultrasound imaging.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the anatomical part comprises a brain of a human patient.