Image-Guided Intraoperative Cortical Deformation Recovery Using Game Theory: Application to Neocortical Epilepsy Surgery

Abstract

During neurosurgery, nonrigid brain deformation prevents preoperatively-acquired images from accurately depicting the intraoperative brain. Stereo vision systems can be used to track intraoperative cortical surface deformation and update preoperative brain images in conjunction with a biomechanical model. However, these stereo systems are often plagued with calibration error, which can corrupt the deformation estimation. In order to decouple the effects of camera calibration from the surface deformation estimation, a framework that can solve for disparate and often competing variables is needed. Game theory, which was developed to handle decision making in this type of competitive environment, has been applied to various fields from economics to biology. In this paper, game theory is applied to cortical surface tracking during neocortical epilepsy surgery and used to infer information about the physical processes of brain surface deformation and image acquisition. The method is successfully applied to eight in vivo cases, resulting in an 81% decrease in mean surface displacement error. This includes a case in which some of the initial camera calibration parameters had errors of 70%. Additionally, the advantages of using a game theoretic approach in neocortical epilepsy surgery are clearly demonstrated in its robustness to initial conditions.

Superficial vessel reconstruction with a Multiview camera system

“…D'Apuzzo and Verius 2 used a three-dimensional (3-D) monitoring system (three cameras) to track points in a brain phantom, with reference points painted on the surface. Sun et al, 3 Paul et al, 4 DeLorenzo et al, 5 Hsieh et al, 6 Vivanti et al, 7 and Kumar et al 8 (two cameras) also tracked points on the brain surface, but in this case automatically extracted.…”

Computational Modeling for Enhancing Soft Tissue Image Guided Surgery: An Application in Neurosurgery

“…DeLorenzo et al expanded upon the work using a similar model but adopting a more automated approach to estimate cortical surface deformation using information game theory which allowed both camera calibration errors and cortical surface deformations to simultaneously be addressed during the deformation tracking. 15,16 Similar approaches with respect to data integration have been proposed using continuum models of elastic and nonlinear viscoelastic models and have moved this direction forward. 77,82,83 In Wittek et al , 77 investigators demonstrate dramatic increases in computational speed for nonlinear models with results reflecting good deep structure alignment over several surgeries with a subsequent study showing similar results over many retrospective patient data sets.…”

Non-rigid point set registration of curves: registration of the superficial vessel centerlines of the brain

“…In image-based surgery, they can be used to assess the deformation during surgery, so that it can be corrected in the images presented to the surgeon. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] A wide range of algorithms for segmentation and registration make use of such structures. These features can be used for the registration of two corresponding vessel trees (reference -not deformed, deformed/target).…”