Patent ID: 8160676

Claim:
A method to determine a surgical plan for reaching an anatomical target in a portion of a human brain relative to identified anatomical landmarks, the method comprising: capturing a plurality of slices of image data of the anatomy, wherein the slices are captured at selected distances from one another along an axis; processing the image data at least by: segmenting a third ventricle of a brain in each of the captured plurality of slices of image data; after segmenting a third ventricle, aligning the plurality of slices of image data relative to each other based at least in part on the segmented third ventricle; and after aligning the plurality of slices of image data, determining a location of the mid-sagittal plane in the aligned plurality of slices of image data; after determining the location of the mid-sagittal plane, determining an anatomical landmark that is distinguishable in the processed image data including an intensity change at an edge of the segmented third ventricle; after determining the anatomical landmark, determining an anatomical target that is relatively indistinguishable from the surrounding structures in the image data based on a position relative to the determined mid-sagittal plane and the determined anatomical landmark; and after determining the anatomical target, determining a surgical plan, including: determining an entry point into the anatomy illustrated in the image data; weighting the image data; inputting procedure specific data; and determining a trajectory to reach a point relative to the anatomical target based on the weighted image data, at least a portion of the inputted procedure specific data, and the determined anatomical target.