Navigation Techniques for MRI-Guided Interventions

Medical navigation is the process of locating and controlling the movement of medical instruments both inside and outside the patient’s body. Since the inception of intraoperative MRI in the mid-1990s, navigation systems for MRI-guided procedures have been shown to substantially assist with proper trajectory planning, safe instrument manipulation inside the body, and accurate targeting of focal regions. Most MRI navigation systems have been described for percutaneous procedures with clinical applications in nearly all regions of the body. This chapter presents some fundamental concepts, provides a brief history of MRI-based navigation, and then highlights some of the early, current, and emerging techniques and implementations. Specific advantages and limitations of navigation solutions for different interventional settings are discussed.