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EP-4346685-B1 - SYSTEMS FOR COUPLING NAVIGATION MARKERS TO AN ARRAY

EP4346685B1EP 4346685 B1EP4346685 B1EP 4346685B1EP-4346685-B1

Inventors

  • MERCER, Alasdair
  • BAILEY, ANDREW

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20220516

Claims (15)

  1. A coupling system for securing and positioning a navigation marker (340) in a navigation array (200; 210; 300), the coupling system comprising: a navigation marker (340; 740) comprising a body having a proximal end with a navigation element configured to be precisely located by an optical tracking system, the body defining a peripheral surface; and a carrier housing (330; 530; 630; 730; 830; 930; 1030; 1130; 1230; 1330; 1430) comprising a body configured to be disposed in a navigation array (300), the body defining: an open proximal end, an interior surface (324) defining an interior void extending from the open proximal end, and an exterior surface (334) configured to interface with the navigation array (300) to couple the carrier housing (330) to the navigation array (300), wherein the carrier housing (330) is configured to secure and retain the navigation marker (340) in the interior void such that the navigation element is presented at the open proximal end, characterized in that the body of the carrier housing (330; 530) comprises a plurality of arms (331; 531; 731) extending proximally to the proximal open end, the plurality of arms (331; 531; 731) comprising an inner surface (332) defining at least a portion of the interior void and an outer surface (333) defining at least a portion of the exterior surface (334) of the body.
  2. The coupling system of claim 1, wherein the carrier housing (330) is configured to secure and retain the navigation marker (340) to the navigation array (300) when the navigation marker (340) is disposed in the carrier housing (330) and the carrier housing (330) is disposed in the navigation array (300).
  3. The coupling system of claim 1, wherein the peripheral surface of the navigation marker (340) is circular.
  4. The coupling system of claim 3, wherein the body of the carrier housing (330) defines an open cylindrical section.
  5. The coupling system of claim 1, wherein the interior surface (324) of the carrier housing comprises an interface configured to secure the navigation marker (340) to the carrier housing (330) or wherein the interior surface (324) of the carrier housing (330) is sized and shaped to create an interference fit with the peripheral surface of the navigation marker (340).
  6. The coupling system of claim 1, wherein the interior surface (324) of the carrier housing (330) defines a plurality of positioning elements (323) sized and shaped to interface with the peripheral surface of the navigation marker (340) to control the depth of the navigation marker (340) in the interior void and align an axis of the navigation marker (340) or navigation element with an axis of the carrier housing (330).
  7. The coupling system of claim 1, wherein the interior surface (324) of the carrier housing (330) defines a stepped surface sized and shaped to interface with a corresponding stepped section of the peripheral surface of the navigation marker (340) to control the depth of the navigation marker (340) in the interior void and align an axis of the navigation marker (340) or navigation element with an axis of the carrier housing (330).
  8. The coupling system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of positioning elements (323) are configured to align a central axis of the navigation marker (340) with a central axis of the body of the carrier housing (330).
  9. The coupling system of claim 1, wherein the outer surface (333) of the plurality of arms (331) defines a tapered profile when the navigation marker (340) is disposed in the interior void, the tapered profile being shaped to interface with a corresponding surface of an opening of the navigation array (300) and create an interference fit between the carrier housing (330) and the navigation array (300).
  10. The coupling system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of arms (731) defines an angle of twist about a longitudinal axis.
  11. The coupling system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of arms (731) defines a curved inner surface and a curved outer surface each extending from a first inner end to a second outer end of the arm (731), the inner end being closer to a central axis of the carrier housing; and wherein each of the plurality of arms (731) is configured to contact the navigation marker (740) at a location along the inner surface closer to the inner end than the outer end.
  12. The coupling system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of arms (731) is sized and shaped to be deflected about the longitudinal axis in a direction to reduce the angle of twist by the peripheral surface of the navigation marker (740) or wherein each of the plurality of arms (731) is sized and shaped to be deflected about the longitudinal axis in a direction to reduce the angle of twist by an inner surface of a recess in the navigation array (300).
  13. The coupling system of claim 12, wherein the deflection of each of the plurality of arms (731) by the navigation marker (740) generates a frictional force that retains the navigation marker (740) in the carrier housing (730).
  14. The coupling system of claim 1, wherein the exterior surface of the body of the carrier housing (530) comprises threaded features (539) for threading the carrier housing (530) into corresponding threaded features of the navigation array or wherein the carrier housing (330) is configured to center the navigation marker (340) in a circular opening of the navigation array (300).
  15. The coupling system of claim 1, wherein the exterior surface (334) defines an angled section at the open proximal end, the angled section being angled towards a central axis of the body and configured to be engaged by an inwardly extending lip (323) of an opening of the navigation array (300) in which the carrier housing (330) is disposed, the engagement of the lip (323) with the angled surface retaining the carrier housing (330) in the opening of the navigation array (300).

Description

FIELD This invention relates generally to systems for coupling or integrating navigation markers into an array for subsequent use in locating a tool and/or a surgical robot during a surgical procedure. Navigational arrays comprising reflective markers disposed in a chassis and related methods for coupling the reflective markers to the chassis are disclosed herein, e.g., for locating, tracking, and/or navigating an instrument carrying the navigational arrays in association with, for example, a robotic or robot-assisted surgery. BACKGROUND Many different surgical procedures utilize some form of surgical navigation or tracking to aid in positioning surgical instruments relative to portions of patient anatomy during a procedure. One such type of procedure is robotic or robot-assisted surgical procedures, where surgical navigation can be important to correctly position a robotically controlled or assisted surgical instrument relative to a patient. There are a number of known surgical navigation or tracking technologies, including commonly employed optical navigation or tracking systems that utilize, e.g., stereoscopic sensors to detect infra-red (IR) light reflected or emitted from one or more optical markers affixed to surgical instruments and/or portions of a patient's anatomy. By way of further example, a tracker having a unique constellation or geometric arrangement of reflective elements can be coupled to a surgical instrument and, once detected by stereoscopic sensors, the relative arrangement of the elements in the sensors' field of view, in combination with the known geometric arrangement of the elements, can allow the system to determine a three-dimensional position and orientation of the tracker and, as a result, the instrument or anatomy to which the tracker is coupled. In known surgical navigation technologies, a navigation array or tracker can be mounted on an instrument that is received and/or controlled by a robotic arm to identify a position of the instrument. In some instances, a navigation array or tracker can be formed integrally with the instrument itself. In other instances, a navigation array can be removably attached to an instrument and can be used to track a position of multiple instruments over the course of a surgical procedure. This approach, however, requires unmounting and remounting of the array with respect to each particular instrument every time a different instrument is used. Both solutions, however, can be inconvenient, as the capability to decouple the array from the instrument or to couple the array to other instruments may be absent or complicated. Further, many types of reflective markers that are used with navigation arrays are fragile and therefore are intended to be single-use devices, and arrangements having the reflective markers integrally-formed in a frame of the array can require the entire navigation array or instrument-array assembly to be single-use, or necessitate the replacement of the entire navigation array or instrument-array assembly if a reflective element is damaged during the operation. This has discouraged the use of robust and reusable navigation array that can provide a higher level of accuracy in positioning the reflective markers. Moreover, existing techniques for coupling single-use reflective markers to a navigation array chassis fail to accuracy locate the reflective marker in the chassis and result in an overall degradation of tracking accuracy. WO 2021/059253 A1 teaches an optical tracker usable with a handheld surgical instrument, the optical tracker includes a tracker frame including a mounting body, which defines an instrument engaging aperture having a longitudinal axis, and an offset body protruding proximally from the mounting body. The instrument engaging aperture is configured to receive a proximal region of the surgical instrument such that the longitudinal axis of the tracker is aligned with an axis of the surgical instrument. Three radial segments of equal proportion are defined about the longitudinal axis and collectively encircle the longitudinal axis. The tracker further includes at least six markers arranged to form at least two arrays coupled to the tracker frame and positioned such that at least one marker is positioned within each radial segment. A portion of each of arrays is coupled to the offset body and positioned proximally of the mounting body. EP 0 739 182 B1 relates to a detachable cap for use in determining the location of the center of the imageable portion of a fiducial marker. The lower portion of the cap has three arms and a boss for providing a detachable connection with an implanted base portion to which an imaging marker can be attached. The upper portion of the cap includes a divot-like depression that is configured to mate with a ball whose center can be determined. The ball, marker, and divot are configured so that the center of the ball, when mated to the divot, is coincident with the center of the marker