[Video matching as intraoperative navigation aid in operations to improve the facial profile]

Planning and simulation of individual interventions are not yet the common standard treatment in general surgery. Improvements in planning and simulation of individual orthognatic and craniofacial interventions have led to the need to transfer the results of preoperative planning to the location. Videomatching offers a new approach to the surgeon so that simulation output can be used in a highly intuitive way. Congruent video superimposition of the real site and a view of the simulation give the surgeon a unified view of both domains. Visual merging is immediately accepted by the surgeon who prefers the intuitive, non-tactile nature of this highly informative navigational aid. Application and positioning of anatomical markers and time-consuming calibration procedures can be reduced to a minimum. Alternative plans can be discussed among several surgeons preoperatively, and different therapeutic concepts solidified in various simulation models can be selected intraoperatively. We concentrate on the application of this new method in craniomaxillofacial surgery, but it is applicable in other disciplines as well.