LandmarX ENT Image Guidance System:

Technology for Surgeons to Realize Their Best Surgical Technique.

In the past, surgeons relied on previously acquired diagnostic information to guide the way during patient treatment. The development of the X-ray enabled the visualization of the sinuses and more recently, computed tomography (CT) and other advanced imaging modalities began providing internal views of organs and soft tissue, as well as their functional states. This fixed information was remotely displayed on a light box 10 feet away and was only viewable in two dimensions, requiring the physician to imagine instrument-to-anatomy relationships.

Today, a breakthrough technology exists that provides 3-D visualization of anatomical features with real-time localization information. With the LandmarX ENT Image Guidance System from Medtronic Xomed, the physician can now take CT image data sets and transform them into three-dimensional volumes, utilizing a sophisticated Silicon Graphics computer.

The LandmarX technology functions very similarly to GPS (global positioning) technology. More specifically: when the surgeon’s instrument touches the patient’s anatomy, an optical scanner mounted above the operating table locates the instrument and establishes a 3-D location. The -instrument location is entered through a digitizer to the Silicon Graphics computer. The computer registers, or matdies, the anatomy to the patient’s preoperative CT data and indicates the instrument’s location on a high resolution monitor for the surgeon. The surgeon can then follow, in real-time, the precise location of surgical instruments. This technology is referred to as computer-assisted or image-guided surgery.

The LandmarX System delivers excellent accuracy. Surgeons are able to pinpoint the location of instruments and navigate through and around critical anatomy in the sinuses. The LandrnarX System assists the surgeon in performing faster, more cost-effective, and less invasive surgery and is now available at Doctor's Same Day Surgery Center.