Many researchers hope that imaging technology will soon be used to provide valuable, real-time feedback to surgeons, allowing them to perform procedures more quickly and more precisely.  As currently conceived, image-guided surgery will involve many steps: pre-procedural imaging, surgical planning, the superimposition of the plan onto the pre-procedural image, and navigational imaging during surgery. 

Navigational imaging involves mapping two-dimensional images obtained during surgery via onto three-dimensional images obtained prior to surgery.  The pre-procedural images are often obtained using computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and the images taken during surgery are usually obtained via X-ray imaging or fluoroscopy.  In the process of mapping 2-D images onto a 3-D image, researchers will hopefully be able to compensate for deformations due to motion of the patient during surgery.  This type of compensation would improve the efficacy of various ablation therapies such as radiofrequency ablation, photodynamic therapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound (e.g. in the prostate), and targeted radiotherapy.  It is hoped that image-guided techniques will someday help surgeons maximize the dose of therapy delivered to a target area while minimizing the damage inflicted upon surrounding tissue. 

The future of surgery and other invasive procedures may be intertwined with that of imaging.  Functional imaging that accounts for motion will be necessary in addition to traditional anatomical imaging, and intra-operative navigational imaging must be improved.   

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