Christian Jrgen Seebauer1, Ulf Teichgrber2, Florian Wichlas1, Tobias Jung1, Jens Rump2, Ren Schilling2, Thula Walther2, Hermann Josef Bail1
1Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charit Universittsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany; 2Department of Radiology, Charit Universittsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Drilling under conventional X]ray guidance often leads to damage of the bone and cartilage, due to poor visualization and the complex anatomy of the ankle. We propose a passive, simple and inexpensive navigation concept, based on the cross-sectional nature of MRI for retrograde drilling of osteochondral lesions of the talus under MRI-guidance. For navigation, we used a custom]made MR]compatible drilling device. The passive navigation concept was fast and safe in practice. Saw cut specimens showed that the artificial lesion was hit in all cases. We conclude that our method is a viable alternative to conventional navigation concepts.