Percutaneous bone biopsy. A new application for 3D navigation: a pilot study.

Computer Tomography (CT) guided percutaneous bone biopsy has been established as a minimally invasive method for the rapidly obtaining samples from osseous lesions for histological examination. With this method, an overall accuracy of 90% can be obtained without a significant radiation exposure. The aim of this study was to develop a navigated sleeve for the Jamshidi needle in order to perform navigated, percutaneous bone biopsies with the help of Iso-C-3D. Utilizing this navigated biopsy needle, the procedure was analyzed for several parameters including precision, total operating time, and level of radiation exposure. By using the Iso-C-3D navigation the total operating time was 11.7 min (8-14.3) and radiation exposure was 1.6 (0.67-2.12 min). This study demonstrates that navigated percutaneous bone biopsies can be obtained fast and with low radiation exposure. The feasibility of Iso-C-3D navigated bone biopsies is tempered by the requirement a rigidly fixed dynamic reference frame.