An oral and maxillofacial navigation system for implant placement with automatic identification of fiducial points

Surgical navigation system (SNS) has been an important tool in surgery. However, the complicated and tedious manual selection of fiducial points on preoperative images for registration affects operational efficiency to large extent. In this study, an oral and maxillofacial navigation system named BeiDou-SNS with automatic identification of fiducial points was developed and demonstrated.

To solve the fiducial selection problem, a novel method of automatic localization for titanium screw markers in preoperative images is proposed on the basis of a sequence of two local mean-shift segmentation including removal of metal artifacts. The operation of the BeiDou-SNS consists of the following key steps: The selection of fiducial points, the calibration of surgical instruments, and the registration of patient space and image space. Eight cases of patients with titanium screws as fiducial markers were carried out to analyze the accuracy of the automatic fiducial point localization algorithm. Finally, a complete phantom experiment of zygomatic implant placement surgery was performed to evaluate the whole performance of BeiDou-SNS.

The coverage of Euclidean distances between fiducial marker positions selected automatically and those selected manually by an experienced dentist for all eight cases ranged from 0.373 to 0.847 mm. Four implants were inserted into the 3D-printed model under the guide of BeiDou-SNS. And the maximal deviations between the actual and planned implant were 1.328 mm and 2.326 mm, respectively, for the entry and end point while the angular deviation ranged from 1.094° to 2.395°. The results demonstrate that the oral surgical navigation system with automatic identification of fiducial points can meet the requirements of the clinical surgeries.