Accuracy Evaluation of AR Navigation in Partial Nephrectomy

The standard treatment for small renal cell carcinoma is a “partial nephrectomy”, which is the surgical removal of a tumor from the kidney. A significant challenge in this surgery is the difficulty in locating tumors that are embedded within the kidney. To address this issue, research has been conducted on Augmented Reality (AR) navigation, which involves projecting a kidney model created from preoperative CT scans onto the intraoperative field. However, adapting this navigation to the kidney’s deformation during surgery is challenging, and the accuracy is insufficient. In our approach, we resolved this problem by limiting the application to scenarios where there is minimal organ deformation during surgery. This strategy enabled the realization of a high-accuracy AR navigation system. This study reports the objective accuracy evaluation of this navigation system, conducted using a 3D printer model.