Surgical kit for minimally invasive spine surgery

1 . A surgical kit, for performing minimally invasive spine surgery, the surgical kit comprising:

a position detection system configured for detecting a position and an orientation of localizers from received sensor signals in a coordinate system;

a sensor carrier configured to be removably arranged in a lumen of a medical instrument, the sensor carrier having at least two localizers, each of the two localizers being configured for providing a sensor signal representing the position and the orientation of the respective localizer; and

a plurality of different medical instruments having a lumen in which the sensor carrier can be removably arranged for connecting the respective medical instrument to the position detection system.

2 . The surgical kit of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of medical instruments comprises an access needle having a lumen extending from a distal end of the access needle to a proximal end of the access needle, and wherein the access needle is configured for being guided to a target location in a body of a patient.

3 . The surgical kit of claim 2 , wherein each of the plurality of different medical instruments comprises at least one of:

(i) a guidewire configured for being inserted into the lumen of the access needle;

(ii) (i) and a guiding rod having a lumen and being configured to be advanced over the guidewire;

(iii) (i) and (ii) and at least one dilation tube configured to be advanced over the guiding rod and for dilating an access path to a target location;

(iv) (i), (ii), (iii), and a working tube configured to be advanced over the at least one dilation tube and for providing a working channel for medical instruments, wherein at its distal end, the working tube is shaped such that it can be anchored to a patient's bone;

(v) (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), and a reamer having a lumen in which an endoscope can be arranged and being configured to be arranged inside the working channel of the working tube for creating a posterior-lateral access to the central nervous system;

(vi) (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), and an endoscope having at least one endoscope working channel for inserting another medical instrument, the endoscope being configured for medical imaging inside a patient's body; and

(vii) (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), and a medical instrument configured to be arranged inside the working channel of the endoscope and for removing at least a part of an intervertebral disc or a surrounding body tissue.

4 . The surgical kit of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of different medical instruments comprises at least one of:

a spine cage configured for restoring disc space between two vertebrae when being arranged between the respective vertebrae;

a lamina screwdriver with lamina screw, the screwdriver having a lumen extending from a proximal end of the screwdriver to a distal end of the lamina screw, the screwdriver being configured for anchoring the lamina screw into a lamina of a vertebra;

a tap for tapping a hole into the vertebra for anchoring a bone screw; and

a pedicle screwdriver with a pedicle screw, the screwdriver having a lumen extending from a proximal end of the screwdriver to a distal end of the pedicle screw, the screwdriver being configured for anchoring the pedicle screw into a pedicle of the vertebra.

5 . The surgical kit of claim 1 , wherein a first one of the localizers is arranged at a distal end of the sensor carrier and a second one of the localizers is arranged at a distance from the first localizer towards a proximal end of the sensor carrier, the sensor carrier further comprising a hypo tube extending from the distal end to the proximal end of the sensor carrier and enclosing the at least two localizers.

6 . The surgical kit of claim 5 , further comprising a third localizer configured for providing a sensor signal representing a position and an orientation of the third localizer, the third localizer being arranged at a distance from the first and second localizers towards the proximal end of the sensor carrier.

7 . The surgical kit of claim 1 , further comprising a medical instrument identification setup, the medical instrument identification setup comprising:

a calibration device configured such that its position and orientation in the position detection system's coordinate system can be determined by the position detection system;

a calibration unit configured for calibrating a medical instrument, said medical instrument comprising a tip, with the sensor carrier arranged in its lumen by calculating a distance between the medical instrument's tip and at least one of the two localizers based on the position and orientation of the calibration device and the position and orientation of at least one of the two localizers determined by the position detection system; and

a medical instrument identification unit configured for determining a length of the medical instrument's lumen at least from the calculated distance and for using the determined length of the lumen for identifying the medical instrument.

8 . The surgical kit of claim 7 , wherein the calibration unit is configured for determining a medical instrument's virtual longitudinal axis based on the positions of the at least two localizers.

9 . The surgical kit of claim 1 , the sensor carrier comprising a proximal and a distal end, wherein the proximal end of the sensor carrier is a distance of between 10 cm and 200 cm from the distal end of the sensor carrier.

10 . The surgical kit of claim 9 , wherein the proximal end of the sensor carrier is between 15 cm and 150 cm from the distal end of the sensor carrier.

11 . The surgical kit of claim 9 , wherein the proximal end of the sensor carrier is between 20 cm and 100 cm from the distal end of the sensor carrier.

12 . The surgical kit of claim 1 , the sensor carrier comprising an outer diameter equal to or smaller than 3 mm.

13 . The surgical kit of claim 1 , the sensor carrier comprising an outer diameter equal to or smaller than 1.5 mm.

14 . The surgical kit of claim 1 , the sensor carrier comprising an outer diameter equal to or smaller than 1 mm.