Patent ID: 7402161

Claim:
A surgical facilitation system for facilitating a cryosurgery ablation procedure, comprising: (a) a first imaging modality, for creating digitized preparatory images of an intervention site; (b) a three-dimensional modeler for creating a first three-dimensional model of said intervention site based on said digitized preparatory images; (c) a second imaging modality, for creating a digitized real-time image of at least a portion of said intervention site during a cryosurgery procedure; (d) a first images integrator for integrating information from said three-dimensional model of said site and from said real-time image of said site in a common coordinate system, thereby producing a first integrated image; (e) a predictor operable to predict a situation expected to obtain at a future time, said prediction based on information present in said first integrated image; further comprising a first user interface useable by an operator for specifying operator-specified loci for positioning of simulated cryoprobes in a virtual space and for specifying operational parameters for operation of said simulated cryoprobes for cryoablating tissues, and wherein said images integrator is further operable to integrate information from said first integrated image with information provided by a user through said user interface, thereby producing a second integrated image which comprises information from said three-dimensional model of said site and from said real-time image of said site and from said operator-specified loci for positioning of simulated cryoprobes in a common coordinate system; and further comprising a displayer for displaying in a common virtual space said second integrated image.