Results and complications from the use of a frameless stereotactic microscopic navigator system

We present a series of 21 patients, 12 males and 9 females, aged 41-76 years, with the preoperative diagnosis of a brain tumor. Both preoperatively and postoperatively, all of our patients underwent either a brain computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All the radiographic studies were taped and loaded preoperatively in the Stereotactic Microscopic Navigator (SMN) workstation (Zeiss, Germany). The mean duration of this procedure was 25 +/- 6 min. All our patients were operated on in our institute with the use of the SMN system. The specificity of tumor localization using CT scan was 2.20 +/- 0.25 mm and for the MRI scan 2.6 +/- 0.25 mm. As assessed by postoperative radiographic studies, total gross tumor resection was possible in 20 patients (95.23%). No major intraoperative or early postoperative complications were noted in our series. We believe that the SMN system is a safe, well-tolerated by the patients and simple method with extremely high accuracy and specificity.