Electromagnetic tracking for image-guided abdominal procedures: overall system and technical issues.

This paper summarizes our work over the past several years in developing an image-guided system based on electromagnetic tracking for abdominal interventions. The paper begins with a review of computer-aided surgery and electromagnetic tracking. We next describe our image-guided system along with phantom and animal studies. We then present some technical issues in improving accuracy including pivot calibration, dynamic referencing, and registration using two 5 degree-of- freedom sensors. Electromagnetic tracking has great potential for assisting physicians in precision placement of instruments during minimally invasive interventions. However, the accuracy of these systems needs to be validated in the clinical environment and issues such as respiratory motion and organ deformation need to be addressed.