# EndoGSLAM: Real-Time Dense Reconstruction and Tracking in Endoscopic Surgeries using Gaussian Splatting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.15124 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.15124/

## Key facts

- Cited by 33 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 21 of its 31 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [ORB-SLAM3: An Accurate Open-Source Library for Visual, Visual-Inertial and Multi-Map SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11898/) (2020)
- [NICE-SLAM: Neural Implicit Scalable Encoding for SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.12130/) (2021)
- [iMAP: Implicit Mapping and Positioning in Real-Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.12352/) (2021)
- [Co-SLAM: Joint Coordinate and Sparse Parametric Encodings for Neural Real-Time SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.14377/) (2023)
- [NICER-SLAM: Neural Implicit Scene Encoding for RGB SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.03594/) (2023)
- [Point-SLAM: Dense Neural Point Cloud-based SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.04278/) (2023)
- [Neural Rendering for Stereo 3D Reconstruction of Deformable Tissues in Robotic Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.15255/) (2022)
- [Endo-Depth-and-Motion: Reconstruction and Tracking in Endoscopic Videos using Depth Networks and Photometric Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.16525/) (2021)
- [Colonoscopy 3D Video Dataset with Paired Depth from 2D-3D Registration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08903/) (2022)
- [Self-Supervised Monocular Depth and Ego-Motion Estimation in Endoscopy: Appearance Flow to the Rescue](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.08122/) (2021)
- [EndoMapper dataset of complete calibrated endoscopy procedures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.14240/) (2022)
- [Neural LerPlane Representations for Fast 4D Reconstruction of Deformable Tissues](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.19906/) (2023)
- [Dense RGB SLAM with Neural Implicit Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.08930/) (2023)
- [SAGE: SLAM with Appearance and Geometry Prior for Endoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.09487/) (2022)
- [Bimodal Camera Pose Prediction for Endoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.04968/) (2022)
- [Efficient Deformable Tissue Reconstruction via Orthogonal Neural Plane](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.15253/) (2023)
- [SLAM based Quasi Dense Reconstruction For Minimally Invasive Surgery Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.09107/) (2017)
- [Stereo Dense Scene Reconstruction and Accurate Localization for Learning-Based Navigation of Laparoscope in Minimally Invasive Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.03912/) (2021)
- [C3Fusion: Consistent Contrastive Colon Fusion, Towards Deep SLAM in Colonoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.01961/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [What Is The Best 3D Scene Representation for Robotics? From Geometric to Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.03422/) (2025)
- [HDRSplat: Gaussian Splatting for High Dynamic Range 3D Scene Reconstruction from Raw Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.16503/) (2024)
- [C3VDv2 -- Colonoscopy 3D video dataset with enhanced realism](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.24074/) (2025)
- [Advancing Dense Endoscopic Reconstruction with Gaussian Splatting-driven Surface Normal-aware Tracking and Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.19319/) (2025)
- [The NeRF Signature: Codebook-Aided Watermarking for Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19125/) (2025)
- [EndoFlow-SLAM: Real-Time Endoscopic SLAM with Flow-Constrained Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.21420/) (2025)
- [Digital Twin Generation from Visual Data: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.13159/) (2025)
- [PR-ENDO: Physically Based Relightable Gaussian Splatting for Endoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.12510/) (2024)
- [NFL-BA: Near-Field Light Bundle Adjustment for SLAM in Dynamic Lighting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.13176/) (2024)
- [EndoWave: 4D Gaussian Splatting with Rational Wavelet for Endoscopic Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23087/) (2025)
- [3D Densification for Multi-Map Monocular VSLAM in Endoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14346/) (2025)
- [Realistic Surgical Simulation from Monocular Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02359/) (2024)
- [BREATH-VL: Vision-Language-Guided 6-DoF Bronchoscopy Localization via Semantic-Geometric Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.03713/) (2026)
- [NRGS-SLAM: Monocular Non-Rigid SLAM for Endoscopy via Deformation-Aware 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.17182/) (2026)
- [ColonSplat: Reconstruction of Peristaltic Motion in Colonoscopy with Dynamic Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06860/) (2026)
- [Free-DyGS: Camera-Pose-Free Scene Reconstruction for Dynamic Surgical Videos with Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.01003/) (2024)
- [Moving Light Adaptive Colonoscopy Reconstruction via Illumination-Attenuation-Aware 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18739/) (2025)
- [4D Monocular Surgical Reconstruction under Arbitrary Camera Motions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.17473/) (2026)
- [Feature-EndoGaussian: Feature Distilled Gaussian Splatting in Surgical Deformable Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06161/) (2025)
- [NeeCo: Image Synthesis of Novel Instrument States Based on Dynamic and Deformable 3D Gaussian Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.07897/) (2025)
- [Unifying Scale-Aware Depth Prediction and Perceptual Priors for Monocular Endoscope Pose Estimation and Tissue Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.11282/) (2025)
- [SuperQuadricOcc: Real-Time Self-Supervised Semantic Occupancy Estimation with Superquadric Volume Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.17361/) (2025)
- [Monocular Endoscopic Tissue 3D Reconstruction with Multi-Level Geometry Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.20718/) (2026)
- [EndoDDC: Learning Sparse to Dense Reconstruction for Endoscopic Robotic Navigation via Diffusion Depth Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.21893/) (2026)
- [EndoSERV: A Vision-based Endoluminal Robot Navigation System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.08324/) (2026)
- [Investigating a Policy-Based Formulation for Endoscopic Camera Pose Recovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.20045/) (2026)
- [C3VD-DEFCOL: A Deformable Colonoscopy Dataset with Time-Resolved 3D Ground Truth and Realistic Appearance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.07891/) (2026)
- [3D Consistency Optimization for Self-Supervised Monocular Video Depth Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.15681/) (2026)
- [Expert Consensus on Criteria for the Automated Assessment of Laparoscopic Camera Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.23131/) (2026)
- [Track2Map: Online Deformable SLAM with Motion-Aware Pose Optimization in Robotic Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.08408/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Precise camera tracking, high-fidelity 3D tissue reconstruction, and real-time online visualization are critical for intrabody medical imaging devices such as endoscopes and capsule robots. However, existing SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) methods often struggle to achieve both complete high-quality surgical field reconstruction and efficient computation, restricting their intraoperative applications among endoscopic surgeries. In this paper, we introduce EndoGSLAM, an efficient SLAM approach for endoscopic surgeries, which integrates streamlined Gaussian representation and differentiable rasterization to facilitate over 100 fps rendering speed during online camera tracking and tissue reconstructing. Extensive experiments show that EndoGSLAM achieves a better trade-off between intraoperative availability and reconstruction quality than traditional or neural SLAM approaches, showing tremendous potential for endoscopic surgeries. The project page is at https://EndoGSLAM.loping151.com