A Process Control System Model for Interactive Image Guided Surgery

Over the last decade, interactive image guided surgery (IIGS) has become one of the most important applications of computers in medicine. Through the interactive use of computer generated images from medical imaging and the estimated position of subcutaneous surgical instruments, the surgeon is able to perform surgery in conditions of obscuration or minimally invasive surgery without the constant use of medical imaging machinery (X-ray, MRI) in the operating room. These systems can also be used for the preoperative planning of surgical procedures and have been used to assist in the improvement of prostheses. IIGS has many benefits such as reduced recovery time for the patient and reduced stress on the surgeon as the surgical plan can be practiced ahead of time, recorded, and presented in the operating room. In the current literature, such systems were only analyzed and evaluated from limited perspectives. We review the state of the art in the analysis of IIGS systems and discuss the limitations of the models and methods that were used. We present a novel approach to model IIGS systems. We have developed our notation, modeling techniques and analysis methods so that they can be applied to domains other than surgical interactive systems.