mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

VM-UNet: Vision Mamba UNet for Medical Image Segmentation

arXiv 2402.02491 ↗First posted 4 Feb 2024eess.IV cs.CVcited by 286

On the map: State-space sequence models (S4, Mamba) → Mamba for medical image analysis

Abstract (arXiv)

In the realm of medical image segmentation, both CNN-based and Transformer-based models have been extensively explored. However, CNNs exhibit limitations in long-range modeling capabilities, whereas Transformers are hampered by their quadratic computational complexity. Recently, State Space Models (SSMs), exemplified by Mamba, have emerged as a promising approach. They not only excel in modeling long-range interactions but also maintain a linear computational complexity. In this paper, leveraging state space models, we propose a U-shape architecture model for medical image segmentation, named Vision Mamba UNet (VM-UNet). Specifically, the Visual State Space (VSS) block is introduced as the foundation block to capture extensive contextual information, and an asymmetrical encoder-decoder structure is constructed with fewer convolution layers to save calculation cost. We conduct comprehensive experiments on the ISIC17, ISIC18, and Synapse datasets, and the results indicate that VM-UNet performs competitively in medical image segmentation tasks. To our best knowledge, this is the first medical image segmentation model constructed based on the pure SSM-based model. We aim to establish a baseline and provide valuable insights for the future development of more efficient and effective SSM-based segmentation systems. Our code is available at https://github.com/JCruan519/VM-UNet.

Key facts. Cited by 286 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Mamba for medical image analysis, one of 10 directions in State-space sequence models (S4, Mamba). Builds on 36 of its 47 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Feb 2024.

Builds on

36 of 47 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024SegMamba: Long-range Sequential Modeling Mamba For 3D Medical Image Segmentation24 Jan
  2. 2024U-Mamba: Enhancing Long-range Dependency for Biomedical Image Segmentation9 Jan

Other references · 34

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 59,932
  2. 2020An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scalecited by 29,915
  3. 2015U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentationcited by 19,604
  4. 2021Swin Transformer: Hierarchical Vision Transformer using Shifted Windowscited by 12,082
  5. 2016Layer Normalizationcited by 5,579
  6. 2016SGDR: Stochastic Gradient Descent with Warm Restartscited by 4,993
  7. 2023Mamba: Linear-Time Sequence Modeling with Selective State Spacescited by 4,616
  8. 2021Efficiently Modeling Long Sequences with Structured State Spacescited by 2,424
  9. 2016V-Net: Fully Convolutional Neural Networks for Volumetric Medical Image Segmentationcited by 2,284
  10. 2021TransUNet: Transformers Make Strong Encoders for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 1,552
  11. 2018UNet++: A Nested U-Net Architecture for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 1,518
  12. 20163D U-Net: Learning Dense Volumetric Segmentation from Sparse Annotationcited by 1,471
22 more
  1. 2018Attention U-Net: Learning Where to Look for the Pancreascited by 1,420
  2. 2021Swin-Unet: Unet-like Pure Transformer for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 1,218
  3. 2024Vision Mamba: Efficient Visual Representation Learning with Bidirectional State Space Modelcited by 1,051
  4. 2024VMamba: Visual State Space Modelcited by 955
  5. 2017Sigmoid-Weighted Linear Units for Neural Network Function Approximation in Reinforcement Learningcited by 935
  6. 2019Skin Lesion Analysis Toward Melanoma Detection 2018: A Challenge Hosted by the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC)cited by 657
  7. 2021Combining Recurrent, Convolutional, and Continuous-time Models with Linear State-Space Layerscited by 607
  8. 2020HiPPO: Recurrent Memory with Optimal Polynomial Projectionscited by 600
  9. 2021TransFuse: Fusing Transformers and CNNs for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 258
  10. 2021UCTransNet: Rethinking the Skip Connections in U-Net from a Channel-wise Perspective with Transformercited by 197
  11. 2021Shallow Attention Network for Polyp Segmentationcited by 107
  12. 2021Mixed Transformer U-Net For Medical Image Segmentationcited by 95
  13. 2022MALUNet: A Multi-Attention and Light-weight UNet for Skin Lesion Segmentationcited by 59
  14. 2023EGE-UNet: an Efficient Group Enhanced UNet for skin lesion segmentationcited by 53
  15. 2022TransDeepLab: Convolution-Free Transformer-based DeepLab v3+ for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 43
  16. 2017ISIC 2017 - Skin Lesion Analysis Towards Melanoma Detectioncited by 34
  17. 2022TransNorm: Transformer Provides a Strong Spatial Normalization Mechanism for a Deep Segmentation Modelcited by 34
  18. 2021Less is More: Learning from Synthetic Data with Fine-grained Attributes for Person Re-Identificationcited by 19
  19. 2019Machine Learning Techniques for Biomedical Image Segmentation: An Overview of Technical Aspects and Introduction to State-of-Art Applicationscited by 17
  20. 2022MEW-UNet: Multi-axis representation learning in frequency domain for medical image segmentationcited by 8
  21. 2021Rethinking Person Re-Identification via Semantic-Based Pretrainingcited by 6
  22. 2023Learning Multi-axis Representation in Frequency Domain for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 3

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 124; 2025: 98; 2026: 64.

286 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2024LocalMamba: Visual State Space Model with Windowed Selective Scancited by 235
  2. 2024U-KAN Makes Strong Backbone for Medical Image Segmentation and Generationcited by 176
  3. 2024PointMamba: A Simple State Space Model for Point Cloud Analysiscited by 166
  4. 2024EfficientVMamba: Atrous Selective Scan for Light Weight Visual Mambacited by 146
  5. 2024PlainMamba: Improving Non-Hierarchical Mamba in Visual Recognitioncited by 141
  6. 2024MambaAD: Exploring State Space Models for Multi-class Unsupervised Anomaly Detectioncited by 113
  7. 2024RoboMamba: Efficient Vision-Language-Action Model for Robotic Reasoning and Manipulationcited by 102
  8. 2024VL-Mamba: Exploring State Space Models for Multimodal Learningcited by 93
  9. 2024VmambaIR: Visual State Space Model for Image Restorationcited by 90
  10. 2024The Hidden Attention of Mamba Modelscited by 88
  11. 2024MedMamba: Vision Mamba for Medical Image Classificationcited by 86
  12. 2024ZigMa: A DiT-style Zigzag Mamba Diffusion Modelcited by 84
38 more
  1. 2024FusionMamba: Dynamic Feature Enhancement for Multimodal Image Fusion with Mambacited by 81
  2. 2024Sigma: Siamese Mamba Network for Multi-Modal Semantic Segmentationcited by 71
  3. 2024Fusion-Mamba for Cross-modality Object Detectioncited by 67
  4. 2024Point Cloud Mamba: Point Cloud Learning via State Space Modelcited by 66
  5. 2024Mamba-360: Survey of State Space Models as Transformer Alternative for Long Sequence Modelling: Methods, Applications, and Challengescited by 63
  6. 2024Multi-Scale VMamba: Hierarchy in Hierarchy Visual State Space Modelcited by 62
  7. 2024MiM-ISTD: Mamba-in-Mamba for Efficient Infrared Small Target Detectioncited by 59
  8. 2024State Space Model for New-Generation Network Alternative to Transformers: A Surveycited by 59
  9. 2024Retinexmamba: Retinex-based Mamba for Low-light Image Enhancementcited by 59
  10. 2024Gamba: Marry Gaussian Splatting with Mamba for single view 3D reconstructioncited by 56
  11. 2024LightM-UNet: Mamba Assists in Lightweight UNet for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 54
  12. 2024Vision Mamba: A Comprehensive Survey and Taxonomycited by 53
  13. 2024A Survey on Visual Mambacited by 50
  14. 2024CDMamba: Incorporating Local Clues into Mamba for Remote Sensing Image Binary Change Detectioncited by 48
  15. 2024UltraLight VM-UNet: Parallel Vision Mamba Significantly Reduces Parameters for Skin Lesion Segmentationcited by 45
  16. 2025MambaHSI: Spatial-Spectral Mamba for Hyperspectral Image Classificationcited by 44
  17. 2024Visual Mamba: A Survey and New Outlookscited by 41
  18. 2024VM-UNET-V2 Rethinking Vision Mamba UNet for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 39
  19. 2024Surgical-LVLM: Learning to Adapt Large Vision-Language Model for Grounded Visual Question Answering in Robotic Surgerycited by 39
  20. 2024A Survey of Mambacited by 39
  21. 2024ReMamber: Referring Image Segmentation with Mamba Twistercited by 38
  22. 2024H-vmunet: High-order Vision Mamba UNet for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 34
  23. 2024MambaLRP: Explaining Selective State Space Sequence Modelscited by 31
  24. 2024SegMAN: Omni-scale Context Modeling with State Space Models and Local Attention for Semantic Segmentationcited by 31
  25. 2024Weak-Mamba-UNet: Visual Mamba Makes CNN and ViT Work Better for Scribble-based Medical Image Segmentationcited by 29
  26. 2024VSSD: Vision Mamba with Non-Causal State Space Dualitycited by 29
  27. 2024I2I-Mamba: Multi-modal medical image synthesis via selective state space modelingcited by 26
  28. 2024SpikeMba: Multi-Modal Spiking Saliency Mamba for Temporal Video Groundingcited by 25
  29. 2024CU-Mamba: Selective State Space Models with Channel Learning for Image Restorationcited by 24
  30. 2024Rethinking Scanning Strategies with Vision Mamba in Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Imagery: An Experimental Studycited by 24
  31. 2025Mamba as a Bridge: Where Vision Foundation Models Meet Vision Language Models for Domain-Generalized Semantic Segmentationcited by 23
  32. 2026Medical SAM3: A Foundation Model for Universal Prompt-Driven Medical Image Segmentationcited by 23
  33. 2024Res-VMamba: Fine-Grained Food Category Visual Classification Using Selective State Space Models with Deep Residual Learningcited by 21
  34. 2024Mamba-FETrack: Frame-Event Tracking via State Space Modelcited by 21
  35. 2024PointRWKV: Efficient RWKV-Like Model for Hierarchical Point Cloud Learningcited by 21
  36. 2024Semi-Mamba-UNet: Pixel-Level Contrastive and Pixel-Level Cross-Supervised Visual Mamba-based UNet for Semi-Supervised Medical Image Segmentationcited by 20
  37. 2024Serp-Mamba: Advancing High-Resolution Retinal Vessel Segmentation with Selective State-Space Modelcited by 20
  38. 2024MambaMIR: An Arbitrary-Masked Mamba for Joint Medical Image Reconstruction and Uncertainty Estimationcited by 19

50 most cited of 286 All 286 (JSON)

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  1. 2024Mamba-UNet: UNet-Like Pure Visual Mamba for Medical Image Segmentation
  2. 2024ViM-UNet: Vision Mamba for Biomedical Segmentation
  3. 2024LKM-UNet: Large Kernel Vision Mamba UNet for Medical Image Segmentation
  4. 2024LoG-VMamba: Local-Global Vision Mamba for Medical Image Segmentation
  5. 2024Swin-UMamba: Mamba-based UNet with ImageNet-based pretraining
  6. 2025MambaVesselNet++: A Hybrid CNN-Mamba Architecture for Medical Image Segmentation
  7. 2024MambaClinix: Hierarchical Gated Convolution and Mamba-Based U-Net for Enhanced 3D Medical Image Segmentation
  8. 2026DAMamba-UNet3D: A Parameter-Efficient Mamba State Space U-Net with Dynamic Adaptive Scan for 3D Medical Image Segmentation