Segmentation and reconstruction of the 3D geometry of the middle and inner ear

Abstract

Abstract. The anatomical model of the ear is of great importance in the design of ossicular prosthesis, cochlear implant electrodes, as well as for the preoperative planning and navigation of surgery. By means of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and technology of 3D reconstruction, an anatomical model of the middle and inner ear was built. Region of interest includes the ossicular chain (malleus, incus, and stapes), cochlea (scala vestibule-ST, scala tympani-ST, basilar membrane-BM, spiral ligament-SL and osseous spiral lamina-OSL), tympanic membrane-TM, oval window membrane-OWM, round window membrane-OWM and stapedial annular ligament-SAL. The micro-CT images of a cadaver's temporal bone were acquired by "SkyScan 1076" (Kontich, Belgium, www.skyscan.be) and then reconstructed to cross-section images by SkyScan NRecon™ (v1.6.10.4). The image processing and 3D geometry reconstruction of temporal bone were performed by software Mimics® (v14.0, Materialise NV, Leuven, Belgium). The obtained structures are measured and validated against literature data and the results are in good agreement.

Optimal path generation in scala tympani and path planning for robotic cochlear implant of perimodiolar electrode

“…Hannover Medical University developed a custom DICOM viewer, allowing for the visualization of the cochlea in a midmodiolar slice plane that rotates around the central axis of the cochlea and automatically adjusts to the patient-specific anatomy based on the user-defined degree of geometry simplification. 1,2 The cochlea model was accurately reconstructed by Braun et al 3 and Lu 4 based on high-resolution microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) images, obtaining the geometry of the scala tympani (ST) and scala vestibule (SV) and their geometry parameters. Poznyakovskiy et al 5,6 proposed a geometric modeling method based on Kalman filter with the micro-CT image of guinea pig cochlea.…”