Image Guided Sinus Surgery

Image-guided systems are essentially like GPS (global positioning satellite) systems for the anatomy of your head. These systems are used to aid the surgeon in confirming the location of critical structures when the interior of the nose and sinuses is distorted by unusual anatomy or prior surgery.

To use the image-guidance navigation system, a CT scan of the sinuses, is performed using a specific navigation system protocol. For some systems, a special mask or markers are placed on your face during the scan to serve as reference points. The CT scan is transferred to a disk, which is then loaded into the image-guidance computer.

During surgery, a detection array or a mask is placed on the patient's head. The CT scan images loaded into the system are then calibrated to the patient's anatomy using set pre-set reference points, which may be the mask or markers or specific anatomic points on the face. The position of the sinus surgery instruments can then be tracked by the computer by integrating the information detected from the patient's pre-set reference points and comparing it to the information on the CT scan map.

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