A real-time interactive surgical simulator for catheter navigation

This paper describes the simulation of real-time catheter navigation using an electro-mechanical device in our interactive surgical simulation system. The device consists of a position/ rotation measurement system, a mechanical system and a micro-controller. The mechanical system houses a set of simulated catheter and guidewire whose feel resembles their actual counterparts. Using optical encoders, the measurement system detects the rotations and displacements of the simulated catheter and guidewire. The movement signals are then analysed and accumulated by the micro-controller and sent to the workstation host via serial link. The device driver on the host computer further processes these signals and turns them into correctly scaled displacement and rotation values. By manipulating the simulated catheter on the device, the virtual catheter and guidewire are advanced, retracted or twisted in the virtual blood vessels. Accurate navigation of the catheter and guidewire is achieved through the use of efficient finite element methods. The images of the virtual catheter/guidewire and the virtual blood vessels are computed based on the user-specified zoom and pan factors. These images are superimposed on the corresponding fluoroscopic image and displayed in real-time on the computer screen.