Needle localization for robot-assisted subretinal injection based on deep learning

Mingchuan Zhou, Xijia Wang, Jakob Weiss, Abouzar Eslami, Kai Huang, Mathias Maier, Chris P. Lohmann, Nassir Navab, Alois Knoll, M. Ali Nasseri

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Subretinal injection is known to be a complicated task for ophthalmologists to perform, the main sources of difficulties are the fine anatomy of the retina, insufficient visual feedback, and high surgical precision. Image guided robot-assisted surgery is one of the promising solutions that bring significant surgical enhancement in treatment outcome and reduces the physical limitations of human surgeons. In this paper, we demonstrate a robust framework for needle detection and localization in subretinal injection using microscope-integrated Optical Coherence Tomography (MI-OCT) based on deep learning. The proposed method consists of two main steps: a) the preprocessing of OCT volumetric images; b) needle localization in the processed images. The first step is to coarsely localize the needle position based on the needle information above the retinal surface and crop the original image into a small region of interest (ROI). Afterward, the cropped small image is fed into a well trained network for detection and localization of the needle segment. The entire framework is extensively validated in ex-vivo pig eye experiments with robotic subretinal injection. The results show that the proposed method can localize the needle accurately with a confidence of 99.2%.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages8727-8732
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781538660263
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2019
Event2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2019 - Montreal, Canada
Duration: 20 May 201924 May 2019

Publication series

NameProceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Volume2019-May
ISSN (Print)1050-4729

Conference

Conference2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2019
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal
Period20/05/1924/05/19

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Needle localization for robot-assisted subretinal injection based on deep learning'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this