Patent ID: 9713508
Date: 2017-07-25
CPC Classifications: A61B,G16H

Claim:
1. A method for correlating a 2D ultrasonagraphic image of a patient's spine with a relative location along the spine, the method comprising: (a) storing a generic 3D model of a spine in a database of an ultrasonagraphic system, the generic 3D model having a first generic landmark and a second generic landmark; (b) recording a patient-specific spine contour line, the recording comprising: (c) resizing the length of the generic 3D model according to the patient-specific contour line, such that the first patient landmark correlates to the first generic landmark and the second patient landmark correlates to the second generic landmark; (d) distorting the shape of the generic 3D model according to the patient-specific spine contour line, thereby creating a patient-specific 3D model of the patient's spine; (e) capturing a first ultrasound image of the patient's spine via the ultrasound probe and concurrently determining a 3D location of the ultrasound probe; and (f) correlating the 3D location of the ultrasound probe with a corresponding location on the patient-specific 3D model.