Role of Navigation in the Surgery of Spine Tumours

Abstract

Computer-assisted navigation has emerged in neurosurgery as an approach to improve intraoperative orientation and achieve better surgical results with lower complication rates. While the initial use was focused around precise identification of the surgical target, the current applications are much wider and continue to rapidly expand.Here we report our review of the main applications of navigation in spine surgery with a focus on the surgery of spine tumours operated in Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in the past 10 years (2010-2020). In our unit, intraoperative navigation became a helpful and routine adjunct to the modern armamentarium of a spinal surgeon and is currently used not just for accurate placement of the implants but also for precise demarcation of the tumour margins, as well as for identification of important anatomical structures that must be preserved.Conclusion: Intraoperative navigation is a technology that helped us to improve intraoperative orientation to the unexposed anatomy and reduce the risk of iatrogenic complications; achieve better tumour resection; improve the spinal biomechanical construction; provide a safer learning environment for the spinal surgical trainees; minimise radiation exposure of the surgical team and shorten the operating time. In our opinion, it was helpful not only to reduce the risk of complications but also to perform procedures, which without navigation would have been considered inoperable or very high risk.

Keywords: Computer guided surgery; Image-guided surgery; Spinal navigation; Spinal tumours.