Basic research and 12 years of clinical experience in computer-assisted navigation technology: a review

One hundred and fifty-eight operations with successful application of surgical navigation technology-divided into five groups-are evaluated regarding the criteria “medical benefit” and “technical expenditure” necessary to perform these procedures. Our results indicate that the medical benefit is likely to outweight the expenditure of technology with few exceptions (calvaria transplant, resection of the temporal bone, reconstruction of the orbital floor). Especially in dental implantology, specialized software reduces time and additional costs necessary to plan and perform procedures with computer-aided surgical navigation.