Direct and continuous localization of anatomical landmarks for image-guided orthognathic surgery.

Objective: The accuracy and consistency of a new image-guided method for orthognathic surgery using direct and continuous landmark localization was compared with that of a conventional method.
Study Design: Maxillary and mandibular dental casts mounted on an articulator were used as a surgery phantom. We planned six types of surgeries including translations and rotations. The sequential positions of the landmarks determined before surgery could be traced and the difference between planned and actual positions of the landmarks could be visualized during surgery. The final deviation errors were determined with and without applying the pointing instrument to the landmarks.
Results: The mean RMS accuracy of 0.47 ± 0.22 mm by direct localization was significantly higher than that of 1.06 ± 0.49 mm by the manual localization. There were no significant differences in accuracies for surgeries using the direct localization method.
Conclusion: The direct and continuous localization method showed higher accuracy and consistency than conventional manual localization in all phantom surgeries.
(Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)