INFORMED 3rd Issue · September 200724 Minimally Invasive Navigated Procedures on the Skull Base

Over the past 20 years, image-guided technologies and approaches have signifi cantly helped to enhance minimally invasive surgical procedures. Today, navigation technologies are well established in many intraoperative fi elds, particularly in the area of skull base surgery. Navigation technology has played a dominant role in computer-assisted surgery (CAS) and has established itself in many fi elds as an intraoperative diagnostic instrument, in particular, in head and neck surgery. The introduction of patient images enabled by the navigation system into the surgical microscope facili-tates instantaneous visualization of the surgical site and the spatial location of surgical instrumentation. The depth of the surgical approach can also be visualized with the navigation system by determining the focusing distance of the microscope. This is espe