Bildgestützte Chirurgie

Image guided surgery (IGS) is the use of digital visual information to support surgical interventions. Thus, it is part of computer aided surgery (CAS). The increasing power of graphical hard- and software, the impact of IGS will increase significantly. IGS is a precondition for continuous reduction of the surgical trauma in visceral medicine. As an example, augmented reality is presented. However, technical difficulties like referencing still have to be overcome. Promising further aspects of IGS are intraoperative molecular diagnostics and the concept of intraoperative Sentinel lymph node detection. In the years to come, IGS will certainly stimulate a shift from open surgery to minimally invasive surgery or even interventional gastroenterology.