US Patent 10194990 Method for augmenting a surgical field with virtual guidance content

One variation of a method for augmenting a surgical field with virtual guidance content includes: accessing a scan representing a tissue of a patient; combining the scan with a generic virtual anatomical model to define a custom virtual anatomical model of the tissue; defining a cut trajectory along an intersection between a virtual model of a surgical implant and the custom virtual anatomical model of the tissue; aligning a virtual cut surface to the cut trajectory to locate the virtual model of the surgical guide relative to the custom virtual anatomical model; accessing an image of a surgical field; detecting the tissue in the image; aligning the custom virtual anatomical model to the tissue detected in the image; defining a target real location for a real surgical guide in the surgical field; and generating a frame depicting the target real location of the surgical guide in the surgical field.