Review on Image Guided Surgery Systems

Nowadays modern imaging techniques can grant an excellent quality 3D images that clearly show the anatomy, vascularity, pathology and active functions of the tissues. The ability to register these preoperative images to each other, to offer a comprehensive information, and later the ability to register the image space to the patient space intraoperatively is the core for the image guided surgery systems (IGS). Other main elements of the system include the process of tracking the surgical tools intraoperatively by reflecting their positions within the 3D image model. In some occasions an intraoperative image may be acquired and registered to the preoperative images to make sure the 3D model used to guide the operation describes the actual situation at surgery time. This survey overviews the history of IGS and discusses the modern system components for a reliable application and gives information about the different applications in medical specialties that benefited from the use of IGS.