Medical navigation and/or pre-operative treatment planning with the assistance of generic patient data

1. A method for computer-assisted medical navigation and/or pre-operative treatment planning, comprising:

linking a generic model with patient-characteristic data to obtain body structure data;

detecting a current position of a patient or a part of a patient's body and positions of medical treatment devices or treatment-assisting devices by a position detection unit, wherein said detected positional data are assigned to the body structure data in order to jointly use said body structure data in assignment with said positional data within the context of assisting the treatment;

obtaining additional points on the patient in the form of landmarks or randomly acquired points; and

using the additional points to further correlate the body structure data to the patient or part of the patient's body.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said body structure data are provided in the form of image data.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2 , wherein the image data set is a tomographic image data set.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said generic model comprises a typical or average body structure.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said generic model includes a statistical model of said body structure.

6. The method as set forth in claim 5 , wherein the statistical model is based on statistical evaluations of a number of image data sets of the body structure.

7. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said generic model includes a multitude of body structures of the same type.

8. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said generic model comprises a two- or three-dimensional data set of a body structure, and/or a geometric model.

9. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said positional data obtained while determining said patient-characteristic data can be used to register said adapted body structure data in said navigation system and to visually display or use treatment devices and/or treatment-assisting devices in their registration to said adapted body structure.

10. The method as set forth in claim 9 , wherein said patient-characteristic detection data includes acquiring landmark positions or x-ray imaging registered in said navigation system.

11. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the generic model is based on data corresponding to a weight of the patient or the part of the patient's body.

12. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein linking includes surface matching the generic model to the patient-characteristic data.

13. A method for computer-assisted medical navigation and/or pre-operative treatment planning, comprising:

detecting a current position of a patient or a part of a patient's body and positions of medical treatment devices or treatment-assisting devices by a position detection unit, wherein said detected positional data are assigned to body structure data in order to jointly use said body structure data in assignment with said positional data within the context of assisting the treatment,

and wherein said body structure data are obtained based on a generic model which has been adapted by linking the generic model with patient-characteristic detection data, wherein said patient-characteristic data are diagnostic data obtained from the patient, said diagnostic data obtained from at least one of the following, alone or in combination:

x-ray image data from x-ray images produced before or during treatment;

bi-planar or multi-planar x-ray images;

computer tomography or nuclear spin tomography image data;

digitally reconstructed x-ray image data (DRRs=digitally reconstructed radiographs);

acquired point-positional information of the patient's body structure using natural or artificial landmarks;

data on size, weight or lengths of the body section or one or more limbs of the patient.

14. A method for computer-assisted medical navigation and/or pre-operative treatment planning, comprising:

detecting a current position of a patient or a part of a patient's body and positions of medical treatment devices or treatment-assisting devices by a position detection unit, wherein said detected positional data are assigned to body structure data in order to jointly use said body structure data in assignment with said positional data within the context of assisting the treatment,

and wherein said body structure data are obtained based on a generic model which has been adapted by linking the generic model with patient-characteristic detection data, wherein said generic model can be adapted using one or more of the following methods:

manually adapting with the assistance of image representation;

automatic image fusion methods based on automatically identifying particular anatomical features; and

registering and/or fusing image data of said generic model digitally reconstructed x-ray images, and the same from computer tomography or nuclear spin tomography image data sets, after which the adapted body structure data are calculated by computer-assistance.

15. The method as set forth in claim 14 , wherein manually adapting with the assistance of image representation includes offsetting points and landmarks or by shifting, rotating, stretching or compressing said generic model on a screen output by means of user-interface means.

16. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for computer-assisted medical navigation and/or pre-operative treatment planning, comprising:

code that links a generic model with patient-characteristic data to obtain body structure data;

code that detects a current position of a patient or a part of a patient's body and positions of medical treatment devices or treatment-assisting devices by a position detection unit, wherein said detected positional data are assigned to the body structure data in order to jointly use said body structure data in assignment with said positional data within the context of assisting the treatment;

code that obtains additional points on the patient in the form of landmarks or randomly acquired points; and

code that uses the additional points to further correlate the body structure data to the patient or part of the patient's body.