Navigated Control Functional: Combining surgical navigation and real-time nerve activity measurement for a drill´s motor control

This paper presents a new method Navigated Control Functional for protecting a nerve from damage during surgery. This method combines surgical navigation and realtime nerve activity measurement for power control of a surgical drill´s motor. The power of a drill´s motor is automatically reduced when the nerve activity is identified as critical or the drill reaches a predefined prohibited area. The purpose of this method is to increase the safety of patients (especially nerves) and the ergonomics of surgeons and also to shorten the operation time. Furthermore, a laboratory experiment shows the feasibility of this method in principle.