Computational Anatomy in Surgery for Childhood Tumours and Malformations

This study is part of the launch of a multidisciplinary project called IMAG2, for image-guided minimally invasive surgery. It involves collaboration between the radiology and surgery teams at Necker Hospital and the Image Processing and Interpretation (TII) team at the LTCI at Télécom ParisTech.

To make a decision, surgeons need access to a 3D model reflecting the anatomy of the specific patient and its pathological variations. Patient-specific 3D reconstruction provides a significant improvement, leading to a precise assessment of the malformation or tumour and its relationship with surrounding organs, nerves and vessels. It allows the surgeon to simulate a pre-operative procedure, which is a definite advantage in terms of safe, effective and curative surgery, particularly in oncology. MRI has been chosen as the basic imaging technique because of its non-irradiating nature and the current lack of 3D MRI reconstruction technology.

The study aims to provide an aid to diagnosis and surgical planning by developing dedicated methods and algorithms for segmenting not only the tumour but also the main anatomical components surrounding the tumour from 3D MRI imaging data. The imaging will be performed on a 3 Tesla MRI. The data will be that required for diagnosis and surgical planning, acquired on a routine clinical basis with an expected benefit for patients.