Patent ID: 11950852
Assignee: 7D SURGICAL ULC
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A

Claim 18:
19. The method according to claim 1 wherein the segmented surface data is obtained by:
(i) obtaining input identifying at least three volumetric fiducial points at a pre-selected spinal level within a volumetric frame of reference associated with the volumetric image data;
(ii) employing at least one of the volumetric fiducial points associated with the pre-selected spinal level to perform segmentation on the multi-level surface data, thereby obtaining segmented surface data associated with the pre-selected spinal level;
(iii) employing the pre-selected spinal level as an initial spinal level when performing steps (iv) to (vi) for a first time;
(iv) determining an adjacent volumetric region, within the volumetric frame of reference, that is associated with an adjacent spinal level that is adjacent to the initial spinal level;
(v) performing segmentation on the multi-level surface data within the adjacent volumetric region, thereby obtaining adjacent segmented surface data associated with the adjacent spinal level;
(vi) registering the segmented surface data associated with the initial spinal level to the adjacent segmented surface data, thereby obtaining an inter-level transform between the initial spinal level and the adjacent spinal level;
(vii) repeating steps (iv) to (vi) one or more times, each time using the previous adjacent level as the initial level, to generate segmented surface data and the inter-level transforms associated with additional spinal levels of the plurality of spinal levels on a first side of said pre-selected spinal level, such that each inter-level transform is between adjacent spinal levels;
(viii) repeating steps (iii) to (vii) if additional spinal levels of said plurality of spinal levels reside on the other side of said pre-selected spinal level; and
(ix) employing the inter-level transforms and the volumetric fiducial points associated with the pre-selected spinal level to obtain volumetric fiducial points associated with the other spinal levels of the plurality of spinal levels.