Patent ID: 7606613

Claim:
A system for realigning a first bone segment with a second bone segment in a patient comprising: a first tracking marker attached to the first bone segment; a second tracking marker attached to the second bone segment; a tracking sensor for detecting the relative position, in three-dimensional space, of the first and second tracking markers; a position examining portion for examining position information while acquiring image data and marking the image data as erroneous if a tracking target associated with an image acquisition system moves relative to the first tracking marker, the second tracking marker, or both the first and the second tracking markers; a delineating portion for delineating the images of the first and second bone segments in an image and for, when the second bone segment is moved in the patient, correspondingly moving the delineated second bone segment superimposed on the image; and a display coupled to the computer for displaying the image overlaid with representations of the delineated first and second bone segments; wherein the first bone segment and the second bone segment are distinct complete bone members that are separate vertebrae.