Surgical navigation method

1. A method of tracking a surgical tool with respect to a patient, the method comprising the steps:

attaching a camera to a face of the patient in a fixed position such that a field of view of the camera points away from the patient; and

tracking a position of the surgical tool in relation to the patient using pictures taken by the camera and a computerized navigation system.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step:

displaying on a display device the position of the surgical tool with respect to the patient superimposed and in correlation with a scan image of the patient.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the scan image includes an image of the camera on the patient, the method further comprising the step:

automatically registering a position of the camera with the scan image of the patient from the image of the camera and a database of form factor information about the camera.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps:

registering a position of the camera with a scan image of the patient;

validating the surgical tool; and

optionally calibrating the surgical tool.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the camera has a coordinate system and wherein the scan image is transformed into the coordinate system of the camera a single time during registration.

6. The method of claim 1 , the surgical tool having a tip and one or more optical navigation markers; the method further comprising the step:

locating the one or more optical navigation markers on the surgical tool such that the one or more optical navigation markers are oriented facing toward the tip of the surgical tool so that the one or more optical navigation markers are in a position to be viewed by the camera when the tip of the surgical instrument is inserted into the patient.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of attaching the camera to the patient in the fixed position further comprises the step: attaching the camera with a pin to a bony structure of the patient.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of attaching the camera to the patient in the fixed position further comprises the step: attaching the camera with a non-invasive attachment mechanism to skin of the patient.

9. The method of claim 8 , the step of attaching the camera with the non-invasive attachment mechanism further comprises the step: attaching the camera with an adhesive to skin of the patient.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step:

locating one or more fiducial markers on the camera in a known pre-defined spatial relationship with respect to the camera, wherein the one or more fiducial markers are sufficient to define a position of the camera to the computerized navigation system.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of tracking the position of the surgical tool in relation to the patient further comprises the step: directly concatenating a positional vector from the surgical tool to the camera without concatenating a positional vector from the camera to a separate patient tracker.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the camera has a coordinate system, the method further comprising the step: fixing the coordinate system of the camera to the patient.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step: attaching a second camera to the patient in a fixed position.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of tracking the position of the surgical tool further comprises the step: tracking the position of the surgical tool in relation to the patient using pictures taken by a single camera.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of attaching the camera to the patient in the fixed position further comprises the step: attaching the camera to a portion of the patient that will not move in relation to a scanned portion of the patient during the surgical procedure.

16. A method of tracking a surgical tool with respect to a patient, the method comprising the steps:

attaching a camera to a back of the patient in a fixed position above the spine of the patient such that a field of view of the camera points upwardly away from the back of the patient; and

tracking a position of the surgical tool in relation to the patient using the camera and a computerized navigation system.

17. The method of claim 16 , the surgical tool having a tip and one or more optical navigation markers, the method further comprising the step:

locating the one or more optical navigation markers on the surgical tool such that the one or more optical navigation markers are oriented facing toward the tip of the surgical tool so that the optical navigation markers are in a position to be viewed by the camera when the tip of the surgical instrument is inserted into the patient.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the step of tracking the position of the surgical tool in relation to the patient further comprises the step: directly concatenating a positional vector from the surgical tool to the camera without concatenating a positional vector from the camera to a separate patient tracker.

19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising the step: displaying on a display device the position of the surgical tool with respect to the patient superimposed and in correlation with a scan image of the patient.

20. A method of tracking a surgical tool with respect to a patient, the method comprising the steps:

providing an optical camera having a lens with a focal geometry known to a computer processing unit;

attaching the optical camera with adhesive to skin of the patient in a fixed position such that the field of view of the optical camera points away from the patient; and

tracking a position of the surgical tool in relation to the patient using pictures taken by the optical camera and a computerized navigation system.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of attaching the camera to the face of the patient in the fixed position further comprises the step of attaching a camera to a forehead of the face of the patient in the fixed position such that the field of view of the camera encompasses a region above the nose and mouth of the patient.