Patent ID: 8380288

Claim:
A method for providing an access to a cochlea of a living subject, comprising the steps of: (a) non-invasively placing a plurality of fiducial markers surrounding the cochlea of the living subject through mounting a locking dental acrylic resin splint (LADS) with an attached fiducial frame onto a maxilla of the living subject, wherein the fiducial frame is adapted for receiving the plurality of fiducial markers; (b) pre-operatively acquiring an image volume of the cochlea of the living subject, the pre-operatively acquired image volume containing the image of the plurality of fiducial markers; (c) identifying a centroid of each fiducial marker from the pre-operatively acquired image volume; (d) pre-operatively measuring a location of each fiducial marker in an anatomic space of the cochlea of the living subject; (e) registering the identified centroid of each fiducial marker in the pre-operatively acquired image volume to the pre-operatively measured location of the corresponding fiducial marker in the anatomic space so as to determine a registration transformation; f) determining the location of anatomical structures of the living subject from the image volume, wherein the anatomical structures include the canal of the facial nerve, the horizontal semicircular canal, and the external auditory canal; (g) determining a single linear path from the lateral edge of the skull to the cochlea of the living subject which avoids the anatomical structures; (h) operating a surgical instrument along the linear path to open an access to the cochlea of the living subject, the surgical instrument having a distal end portion; (i) tracking the distal end portion of the surgical instrument through a first optical emitter attached to the optical instrument and an optical tracker adapted for receiving optical signal from the first optical emitter; (j) intra-operatively guiding the surgical instrument through visualizing a location of the distal end portion of the surgical instrument in the pre-operatively acquired image volume; and (k) intra-operatively tracking at least a portion of the skull of the living subject through a second optical emitter attached to the LADS and the optical tracker adapted for receiving optical signal from the second optical emitter.