The registration of magnetic navigation system for surgery

Abstract In order to detect and track the small magnet embedded in the vicinity of a target during surgical operation, a magnetic navigation system based on the three-dimensional measurement with micro-fluxgate magnetic sensors was developed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the target registration error in the magnetic navigation system. First of all, 196 grid points around the magnetic sensors were selected as the sample measurement points for accuracy evaluation and the 2×2×10 mm-sized small magnet was placed precisely at each sample point, then the three-dimensional position of the target was measured using the magnetic navigation system. As a result, the measurement accuracy of the current prototype system was found to be about 10 mm or less.