An artificial intelligence-based nerve recognition model is useful as surgical support technology and as an educational tool in laparoscopic and robot-assisted rectal cancer surgery.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to enhance surgical practice by predicting anatomical structures within the surgical field, thereby supporting surgeons' experiences and cognitive skills. Preserving and utilising nerves as critical guiding structures is paramount in rectal cancer surgery. Hence, we developed a deep learning model based on U-Net to automatically segment nerves.

Methods

The model performance was evaluated using 60 randomly selected frames, and the Dice and Intersection over Union (IoU) scores were quantitatively assessed by comparing them with ground truth data. Additionally, a questionnaire was administered to five colorectal surgeons to gauge the extent of underdetection, overdetection, and the practical utility of the model in recta

SUBMITTER: Kinoshita K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11362368 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature