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Automatic Segmentation and Probe Guidance for Real-Time Assistance of Ultrasound-Guided Femoral Nerve Blocks

Abstract

Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia can be challenging, especially for inexperienced physicians. The goal of the proposed methods is to create a system that can assist a user in performing ultrasound-guided femoral nerve blocks. The system indicates in which direction the user should move the ultrasound probe to investigate the region of interest and to reach the target site for needle insertion. Additionally, the system provides automatic real-time segmentation of the femoral artery, the femoral nerve and the two layers fascia lata and fascia iliaca. This aids in interpretation of the 2-D ultrasound images and the surrounding anatomy in 3-D. The system was evaluated on 24 ultrasound acquisitions of both legs from six subjects. The estimated target site for needle insertion and the segmentations were compared with those of an expert anesthesiologist. Average target distance was 8.5 mm with a standard deviation of 2.5 mm. The mean absolute differences of the femoral nerve and the fascia segmentations were about 1–3 mm.

Category

Academic article

Client

  • Research Council of Norway (RCN) / 237887

Language

English

Author(s)

  • Erik Smistad
  • Daniel Høyer Iversen
  • Linda Leidig
  • Janne Beate Lervik Bakeng
  • Kaj Fredrik Johansen
  • Frank Lindseth

Affiliation

  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology
  • SINTEF Digital / Health Research
  • St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital

Year

2017

Published in

Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology

ISSN

0301-5629

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

43

Issue

1

Page(s)

218 - 226

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