Surgical Tracking, Registration, and Navigation Characterization for Image-guided Renal Interventions.

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Surgical Navigation
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Image-guided interventions require accurate spatial relationships between patients and medical images.
• Surgical tracking and localization systems are crucial for establishing this spatial relationship.
• Evaluating different tracking systems is essential for optimizing intervention accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize the tracking, registration, and navigation accuracy of optical and electromagnetic surgical localization systems.
• To compare the performance of the NDI Polaris Spectra (optical) and NDI Aurora (electromagnetic) systems.
• To assess accuracy in the context of an image-guided renal intervention using a patient-specific kidney phantom.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a 3D printed, patient-specific kidney phantom derived from CT imaging.
• Characterized accuracy using the NDI Polaris Spectra optical tracking system.
• Characterized accuracy using the NDI Aurora electromagnetic tracking system.
• Compared navigation accuracy against direct visualization as a baseline.

Main Results:

• Optical tracking yielded a fiducial localization error of 0.05 mm and an overall navigation error of 0.63 mm.
• Electromagnetic tracking yielded a fiducial localization error of 0.12 mm and an overall navigation error of 0.89 mm.
• Both systems showed navigation accuracy comparable to direct visualization.

Conclusions:

• Both optical and electromagnetic tracking systems provide high accuracy for image-guided renal interventions.
• The choice between optical and electromagnetic systems may depend on specific clinical needs and constraints.
• Accurate tracking and registration are vital for successful image-guided surgical procedures.