Publication date: Mar 24, 2025
Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) helps stage melanoma. Pre-surgical single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) visualizes draining lymph nodes, but intraoperative gamma probe detection only estimates SLN location. This study evaluates augmented reality (AR) for projecting pre-surgical SLN imaging onto patients to aid precise localization and extraction. Molecular sieves (8 mm) incubated in fluorine-18 simulated lymph nodes and were implanted in the head and neck region of cadavers. Positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) replaced SPECT/CT due to institutional restriction on cadavers. Virtual PET/MRI renderings were projected using the HoloLens 2 and custom software. Five cadavers underwent surgeries with standard, AR, and AR with head movement compensation methods. AR achieved a mean surface localization error of 2. 5+/-2. 0 mm (range, 0-8 mm) and a depth error of 2. 3+/-1. 7 mm (range, 1-7 mm), both within PET voxel resolution. For more challenging level V nodes, the mean surface error slightly increased to 2. 9 mm. Compared to manual surface marking, which had an average error of 18. 6+/-13. 0 mm (range, 6-62 mm), the AR system significantly reduced errors both in the head-straight and rotated positions (p
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| 7mm | Augmented reality |
| Biopsy | Mixed reality |
| Cadaveric | PET/MRI |
| Increased | Sentinel lymph node |
| Lymph |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | melanoma |
| pathway | KEGG | Melanoma |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Fluorine F-18 |