Magnetic Navigation System for Thoracoscopic Surgery: a Partial Lung Resection with Transbronchial Marking

Abstract

In order to detect and track a small magnet embedded in the vicinity of a target tumor during surgery, we have developed a magnetic navigation system based on three-dimensional measurements with micro-fluxgate magnetic sensors. In this paper, we present an image overlay method for superimposing the embedded magnetic marker through a bronchoscope. To evaluate the performance of the proposed system and its applicability in clinical use, we set up an in vivo experiment, in which surgeons used this system to perform thoracoscopic surgery on a pig with transbronchial marking and oblique-viewing, and we succeeded in a partial resection of the pig lung including the target area. Next, we tried a wedge resection for a lung tumor in a clinical case. We successfully performed the partial resection of the lung including the target area, which corresponded to the tumor lesion, under the guidance of the magnetic navigation system.