Freschi, C. and Ferrari, V. and Porcelli, F. and Peri , A. and Pugliese, L. and Morelli, L. and Ferrari, M. and Mosca, F.

An Augmented Reality Navigation Guidance for High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Treatment

in Conf Proc ICABB, International Conference on Applied Bionics and Biomechanics 2010 (2010)

Abstract

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) represents a completely noninvasive method for treatment of solid tumors, hemostasis and other vascular features in human tissues. The technology for HIFU treatments is still evolving and the systems available on the market have some limitations and drawbacks. A disadvantage resulting from our experience with the machinery available in our center is the long time required to perform the procedure as well as the difficulty to find sometimes a good localization of the target. We propose an augmented reality navigation system to enhance the US guidance of a HIFU machinery allowing an easy target localization. The system was implemented using an additional ultrasound probe coupled with a localizer and CT fused imaging. It offers a simple and an economic solution to an easy HIFU target localization.