Virtual cystoscopy--a surgical planning and guidance tool.

Image guided-surgery systems facilitates surgical planning phases of endoscopic procedures. In this paper, we used a software package for 3D surface model generation and vizualization of the urinary bladder, based on magnetic resonance (MR) cross sectional images of the pelvis. The patients group consisted in 6 patients diagnosed with urinary bladder tumour. They were submitted to MRI exam. Twelve consecutive cross sectional images of the pelvis were aquired (TR (repetition time) = 600 msec, TE (echo time) = 19 msec, slice thickness = 6 divided by 7 mm, FOV (field of view) = 36 cm. All these images were transferred to a personal computer running the 3DSlicer software. We obtained, for each patient, a 3D model of the pelvis including the urinary bladder. In This way, the surgical enviroment was simulated and we are able to investigate the bladder by virtual cystoscopy. The virtual endoscopy may be used as a tool in the preoperative training and in surgical planning.