How can AI aid Endoscopic Pituitary Surgery?

At the UCL Hawkes Institute, we are developing AI-powered technologies to enhance Endoscopic Pituitary Surgery, a minimally invasive procedure used to remove tumours from the pituitary gland. Due to the delicate location at the base of the brain, near critical structures like arteries and optic nerves, precision and safety are paramount. Our research aims to establish comprehensive surgical scene understanding through workflow recognition, instrument tracking, and anatomy identification, providing surgeons with real-time guidance to navigate these delicate structures more safely and precisely. Additionally, this technology aims to support trainee surgeons by offering performance analysis and immediate feedback within a risk-free phantom learning environment.

Through collaborations with Queen Square Institute of Neurology, UCL Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, UCL Interaction Centre, and NVIDIA, and with funding from EPSRC, we are integrating AI into surgical workflows. Our objective is to enhance training, improve patient outcomes, and make complex procedures safer and more efficient. As we move forward, we aim to scale this project across multiple centres and proceed towards pre-clinical trials, bringing AI-assisted pituitary surgery closer to widespread clinical adoption.

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