Mobile EM Field Generator for Ultrasound Guided Navigated Needle Insertions

Mobile EM Field Generator for Ultrasound Guided Navigated Needle Insertions Keno März dkfz.de Alfred M. Franz dkfz.de Bram Stieltjes dkfz.de Justin Iszatt dkfz.de Alexander Seitel dkfz.de Boris Radeleff University Hospital Heidelberg Hans-Peter Meinzer dkfz.de Lena Maier-Hein dkfz.de Needle insertions are an elementary tool for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Critical success factors are: Precise needle placement, avoidance of critical structures and short intervention time. Navigation solutions for ultrasound-based needle insertions have been presented but did not find widespread clinical application. This can be attributed to the complexity and higher costs introduced by additional tracking related equipment. Using a new compact electromagnetic (EM) field generator (FG), we present the first navigated intervention method that combines field generator and ultrasound (US) probe into a single mobile imaging modality that enables tracking of needle and patient. In a phantom study, we applied the system for navigated needle insertion and achieving a hit rate of 92% and a mean accuracy of 3.1 mm (n=24). These results demonstrate the potential of the new combined modality in facilitating US-guided needle insertion.