Fundamentals of Intraoperative Navigation for Facial Fractures

Intraoperative navigation is a procedure that facilitates dissection, visibility problems in facial trauma, bone, and implant alignment. The basic computer system that is used is the DICOM system with images obtained from a CT scan. These images are seen in the computer and compared with the images obtained in navigation. There are certain specifications of the CT scan that are used so we can have the best images to plan the surgical procedure. Intraoperative navigation uses three basic elements: a monitor that projects the preoperative CT-scan images and the planning images, the dynamic reference frame with four LED spheres fixed to the patient’s head to localize point by point the CT-scan images with the skeleton frame of the patient, this has a margin error of 0.5 mm, a pointer with LED spheres to mark the point where we are working and projects in the CT-scan images in the monitor; all of these is possible with the transmission of the infrared camera that receives the signals from the spheres and transmits them to the monitor.