Surgical Simulation-Guided Navigation: A New Approach in Thoracic Surgery

High-resolution three-dimensional imaging technology and navigational systems are increasingly being used in surgery to expedite different surgical procedures, for pre-operative surgical planning, and to provide virtual simulation of a patient's skeletal changes and new soft tissue profile. Computerized navigation surgery is a surgical modality based on synchronizing the intraoperative position of the instruments with the imaging of the patient's anatomy obtained by computed tomography.

The authors present two cases treated by this system. The first patient is a 62-year-old woman with a sternal metastasis from breast cancer. The patient underwent sternal resection guided by the navigation system. The reconstruction was performed with sternal allograft transplantation.The second patient is a 66-year-old man with a rib metastasis from colorectal adenocarcinoma. The patient underwent chest wall resection. The reconstruction was performed using titanium plates and screws.

Three-dimensional surgical simulation-guided navigation is helpful during surgery of the chest wall. This technique is simple and easy to use.