Modified method may lead to improved surgical navigation system

A new computerized process developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine could help make minimally invasive surgery easier and more accurate.

Using commonplace items now found in many operating rooms, researchers developed a new algorithm that shows their image-based guidance system has the potential to be better than conventional surgical tracking systems, according to a press release.

“Imaging in the operating room opens new possibilities for patient safety and high-precision surgical guidance,” Jeffrey Siewerdsen, PhD, a professor of biomedical engineering in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, stated in the press release. “In this work, we devised an imaging method that could overcome traditional barriers in precision and workflow. Rather than adding complicated tracking systems and special markers to the already busy surgical scene, we realized a method in which the imaging system is the tracker and the patient is the marker.”

Using a mathematical algorithm previously developed, the researchers modified its use for the task of surgical navigation, as noted in the release.

Siewerdsen and colleagues devised a method using a mobile C-arm that proved an alternative way to perform intraoperative navigation. According to the release, the team matched 2-D X-ray images to a 3-D preoperative CT scan for an easier and more accurate navigation process.

“Accurate surgical navigation is essential to high-quality minimally invasive surgery,” A. Jay Khanna, MD, an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, stated in the release. “But conventional navigation systems can present a major cost barrier and a bottleneck to workflow. This system could provide accurate navigation with simple systems that are already in the OR [operating room] and with a sophisticated registration algorithm under the hood.”