Augmented reality visualization for guidance in neurovascular surgery.

In neurovascular surgery, and in particular surgery for arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), the surgeon maps pre-operative images to the patient on the operating table to aid in vessel localization and resection. This type of spatial mapping is not trivial, is time consuming, and may be prone to error. Using augmented reality (AR) we can register the microscope/camera image of the patient to pre-operative data in order to help the surgeon better understand the topology and locations of vessels that lie below the visible surface of the cortex. In this work we describe a prototype system, developed using open source software and built with off-the-shelf hardware, for AR visualization for AVM neurosurgery. Furthermore, we consider two visualization techniques, colour-coding and chromadepth, to enhance the depth perception of vessels.