Detection and visualization of dural pulsation for spine needle interventions

Purpose Epidural and spinal anesthesia are common procedures that require a needle to be inserted into the patient’s spine to deliver an anesthetic. Traditionally, these procedures were performed without image guidance, using only palpation to identify the correct vertebral interspace. More recently, ultrasound has seen widespread use in guiding spinal needle interventions. Dural pulsation is a valuable cue for finding a path through the vertebral interspace and for determining needle insertion depth. However, dural pulsation is challenging to detect and not perceptible in many cases. Here, a method for automatically detecting very subtle dural pulsation from live ultrasound video is presented.