Ieee T Inf Technol B
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Ieee T Inf Technol B · Dec 2002
ReviewTechnology improvements for image-guided and minimally invasive spine procedures.
This paper reports on technology developments aimed at improving the state of the art for image-guided minimally invasive spine procedures. Back pain is a major health problem with serious economic consequences. Minimally invasive procedures to treat back pain are rapidly growing in popularity due to improvements in technique and the substantially reduced trauma to the patient versus open spinal surgery. ⋯ The discussion includes intraoperative computerized tomography (CT) imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/CT image registration, three-dimensional (3-D) visualization, optical localization, and robotics for percutaneous instrument placement. Finally, the paper concludes by presenting several representative clinical applications: biopsy, vertebroplasty, nerve and facet blocks, and shunt placement. The program presented here is a first step to developing the physician-assist systems of the future, which will incorporate visualization, tracking, and robotics to enable the precision placement and manipulation of instruments with minimal trauma to the patient.