Online Topological Localization for Navigation Assistance in Bronchoscopy

Video bronchoscopy is a fundamental procedure in respiratory medicine, where medical experts navigate through the bronchial tree of a patient to diagnose or operate the patient. Surgeons need to determine the position of the scope as they go through the airway until they reach the area of interest. This task is very challenging for practitioners due to the complex bronchial tree structure and varying doctor experience and training. Navigation assistance to locate the bronchoscope during the procedure can improve its outcome. Currently used techniques for navigational guidance commonly rely on previous CT scans of the patient to obtain a 3D model of the airway, followed by tracking of the scope with additional sensors or image registration. These methods obtain accurate locations but imply additional setup, scans and training. Accurate metric localization is not always required, and a topological localization with regard to a generic airway model can often suffice to assist the surgeon with navigation. We present an image-based bronchoscopy topological localization pipeline to provide navigation assistance during the procedure, with no need of patient CT scan. Our approach is trained only on phantom data, eliminating the high cost of real data labeling, and presents good generalization capabilities. The results obtained surpass existing methods, particularly on real data test sequences.