Design and Development of sterilisable adapters for navigated visceral (liver) surgery and first practical experiences

In this article we present some solutions for different sterilisable adapters as well as their applications in navigated liver surgery. Therefore, we describe some of our first experiences with using these adapters. We have designed and developed adapters for the connection of optical and electromagnetical tracking systems with different surgical instruments and different ultrasound transducers. Several of these adapters for different navigated treatments are presented in this paper. Some of them should apply for a patent and are not presented here. The adapters were successful tested either in a laboratory environment or in surgical environment. They showed good feasibility, ergonomics, sterilizability and stability.