New Technology Provides Navigational Accuracy

It may at first seem like something out of a science fiction movie, but surgeons are now using high-tech computer systems and software in the operating room to guide their surgical instruments during surgery. This new technology is called image-guided surgery or computer assisted surgery. Before image-guided surgery was available, surgeons relied on two-dimensional x-ray images and visual identification to determine their location during some surgical procedures.

With the premier image-guided surgery system, the StealthStation® Treatment Guidance Platform, surgeons are now able to pinpoint the location of their instrument with respect to anatomical structure during an operation. This pinpoint accuracy can mean smaller openings, more accurate surgeries and even improved recoveries.

How does the StealthStation System Work?

Patient images (usually in the form of an MRI or CT Scan) are loaded into the computer and a three dimensional model is then created by the computer program. Once the three dimensional model is created, the StealthStation System utilizes a camera above the operating theatre to provide navigation, similar to the way a Global Positioning System (GPS) uses satellites to provide navigation on the surface of the earth.

The difference between the StealthStation System and Global Positioning System is merely a matter of scale. GPs uses a network of military satellites located hundreds of miles above the earth to pinpoint troop locations or track vehicle movement. The satellites beam radio signals back to Earth allowing for troop locations to be identified anytime regardless of weather. The GPs system was used to locate Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady when his plane went down over Bosnia in 1995. Today, over 500,000 civilians— mostly boaters and pilots — use GPs to plot their course through water or air.

With the use of the StealthStation System surgeons are now using this technology in the operating room to plot their course in the human brain and spine. In the operating room the patient is put to sleep and connected to heart and oxygen monitors. A surgical instrument is used to touch several key areas on the patient's body. The surgical instrument is equipped with reflectors or LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) which send a signal, in the form of infrared rays (similar to the GPs radio waves), to a receiver located above the operating table.

These signals are then transformed into digital readings and sent to the StealthStation System computer. The StealthStation System combines information received from the surgical instrument with the X-ray images scanned into the computer earlier. Thus the real images become integrated with the virtual images. This technology allows surgeons to have an accurate navigational tool to then guide the instruments used during some surgical procedures to the location required within the body.

Surgeons and hospitals have selected the StealthStation System for surgical navigation more than any other system available today.

Sponsored by Medtronic Surgican Navigation Technologies ©2001