In recent years, there has been an active movement to ensure the greater safety of actual surgeries, by simulating it preoperatively with the use of three-dimensional image visualization technologies. Along with this movement, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has named "Image-supported navigation in hepatectomy" as part of advanced medical techniques. This method aims to improve the safety during a surgery by calculating the volume of the liver dominated by each blood vessel or simulating, prior to surgery, the volume of resection zone or the remaining liver volume. These calculations and simulations are carried out using the three-dimensional images produced by extractions of the liver, vascular and tumor regions from the computed tomography images, which were collected using the tomography apparatus prior to hepatectomy. In order to facilitate the achievement of such preoperative simulations, the volume analyzer SYNAPSE VINCENT (VINCENT, hereafter) by Fujifilm, in its Liver Analysis Application, comes equipped with unique features. This paper will introduce the technologies behind those unique features and provide a direction for future research and developments.
Keywords: Hepatectomy; Image intelligence; Liver; Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography; Simulation.
© 2014 Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery.