3-D Laparoscopic Imaging

This paper describes a clinical study conducted on a porcine animal model to assess the 3-D imaging capability of a laparoscopic imaging probe. A commercially available 128 element 7 MHz laparoscopic imaging probe was modified by the addition of a motor for rotation and a position sensor to locate each image plane in the 3-D volume. Images were acquired on a number of organs, including the gallbladder, liver, kidney, and urinary bladder. Because the system uses a conventional one dimensional array for the acquisition, the image quality is high. Volumetric surface renderings of the organs with additional 2-D cross sections demonstrate the features of the software for a number of viewing modes.