Minimally invasive neurosurgery within a 0.5 tesla intraoperative magnetic resonance scanner using an off-line neuro-navigation system.

Background And Purpose: We evaluated an advanced concept for patient-based navigation during minimally invasive neurosurgical procedures.

Methods: An infrared-based, off-line neuro-navigation system (LOCALITE, Bonn, Germany) was applied during operations within a 0.5 T intraoperative MRI scanner (iMRI) (Signa SF, GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI, USA) in addition to the conventional real-time system.