Patent ID: 6236875
Filing Date: 2001-05-22
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A system for use during a medical or surgical procedure on a body, said system generating a display from an image data set representing the position of one or more body elements during the procedure based on scans taken of the body by a scanner prior to the procedure, the scan having reference points for each of the one or more body elements, the reference points of a particular body element having a known spatial relation to the particular body element, said system comprising:means for identifying, during the procedure, the position of the reference points for each of the one or more body elements to be displayed;means for substantially discriminating the one or more body elements of the image data set by creating an image data subset defining each of the one or more body elements;a processor modifying the image data subset according to the identified position of the reference points during the procedure, as identified by the identifying means, said processor generating a displaced image data set representing the position and geometry of the one or more body elements during the procedure; anda display utilizing the displaced image data set generated by the processor, illustrating the position and geometry of the one or more body elements during the procedure.