A CT or MR scan is essential to an image-guided surgery procedure. Viewing the model and scan information, surgeons can plan, in advance, their surgical path and identify the surrounding anatomy. At the start of your surgical procedure, the image-guided surgery system will be moved into the operating room. Registration is simply matching your physical anatomy to the computer scan information. By matching the scan to the real anatomy, the surgeon can now track instrumentation as it proceeds into the operative field as well as view its relative position and trajectory.
Several companies manufacture image guided surgery systems.
The systems are differentiated by software and the applications or procedures they can assist in performing. Image-guided surgery systems are not robotic in design. The surgeon still holds and guides the instruments. It is possible that robotics will be integrated with image-guided surgery systems in the future but all systems are still directly dependent upon the surgeon still performing your procedure. The image-guided surgery system provides a tool that enhances the surgeons ability to perform certain procedures.