Navigation systems for image-guided therapy. A review.

Navigation is visually interactive targeting based on the simultaneous display of instrument position and of the corresponding two- or three-dimensional image data sets. In this way it unifies anatomic information and therapeutic action. Medical navigation systems (MNS) can simulate realtime image guidance and thereby reduce radiation exposure as well as provide the full range of digital image processing during an intervention. Navigation is based on the tracking of medical instruments in space and the transformation of image, patient, and instrument coordinates into a common reference system. If the patient coordinate system is used as the common base, the process is called patient-based navigation (PBN). If, however, the imaging modality is present in the interventional suite and its reference system is used, modality-based navigation (MBN) results. MBN does not need pre-interventional registration and inherently provides intra-operative imaging. In neurosurgery MNS's have been well established since years. They are in use for frameless biopsies and for minimizing the access morbidity in deeply situated pathologies. Currently there is a fast expansion of navigation into other surgical disciplines, e.g., orthopaedic surgery. The clinical accuracy of an MNS is hard to determine since an independent method of measurement is mostly not available during surgery. Normally, a deviation of below one up to about 5 mm between the display of the MNS and the actual position of an anatomic structure is reported. So far there have been only very few prospective randomized clinical trials between conventional and navigated interventions [1 - 3].