Minimally invasive, image-guided, facial-recess approach to the middle ear: demonstration of the concept of percutaneous cochlear access in vitro.

Hypothesis: Image-guided surgery will permit accurate access to the middle ear via the facial recess using a single drill hole from the lateral aspect of the mastoid cortex.

Background: The widespread use of image-guided methods in otologic surgery has been limited by the need for a system that achieves the necessary level of accuracy with an easy-to-use, noninvasive fiducial marker system. We have developed and recently reported such a system (accuracy within the temporal bone = 0.

Design and evaluation of a system for microscope-assisted guided interventions (MAGI).

The problem of providing surgical navigation using image overlays on the operative scene can be split into four main tasks--calibration of the optical system; registration of preoperative images to the patient; system and patient tracking, and display using a suitable visualization scheme. To achieve a convincing result in the magnified microscope view a very high alignment accuracy is required. We have simulated an entire image overlay system to establish the most significant sources of error and improved each of the stages involved.

Locking acrylic resin dental stent for image-guided surgery.

This article presents a procedure for fabricating a locking acrylic resin dental stent for use in image-guided base-of-skull surgery and neurosurgery. The stent offers advantages over conventional bone screw-anchored systems to surgeons and patients. In view of the increasing use of image guidance in base-of-skull surgery and neurosurgery, prosthodontists will meet a growing demand for this type of device in the future.