Augmented‐reality‐based surgical navigation for endoscope retrograde cholangiopancreatography: A phantom study

Background Endoscope retrograde cholangiopancreatography is a standard surgical treatment for gallbladder and pancreatic diseases. However, surgeons is at high risk and require sufficient surgical experience and skills. Methods (1) The simultaneous localisation and mapping technique to reconstruct the surgical environment. (2) The preoperative 3D model is transformed into the intraoperative video environment to implement the multi‐modal fusion. (3) A framework for virtual‐to‐real projection based on hand‐eye alignment. For the purpose of projecting the 3D model onto the imaging plane of the camera, it uses position data from electromagnetic sensors. Results Our AR‐assisted navigation system can accurately guide physicians, which means a distance of registration error to be restricted to under 5 mm and a projection error of 5.76 ± 2.13, and the intubation procedure is done at 30 frames per second. Conclusions Coupled with clinical validation and user studies, both the quantitative and qualitative results indicate that our navigation system has the potential to be highly useful in clinical practice.