Head and neck localizer

An apparatus adapted to immobilize a portion of a patient's body on a couch and/or for acquiring scan image data from an imaging scanner comprising:

• a. at least one upright structure which has a first end which can be secured to said couch, and a second end which includes a patient attachment element which conforms to said portion of said patient's body so as to immobilize said portion of said patient's body with respect to said upright structure and said couch;
• b. graphic reference means which is adapted to be cooperatively connected to said upright structure and including reference indicia, said graphic reference means being adapted so that when said graphic reference means is scanned in said image scanner with said portion of said patient's body being immobilized by said patient attachment element, said reference indicia are detectable as reference index data as part of said scan image data from said image scanner such that said scan image data can be used to determine a target position of a selected anatomical target in said portion of said patient's body with respect to said patient attachment element.

A stereotactic head and neck localizer adapted to immobilize the head and neck region and the head of a patient on a couch for the purpose of acquiring scanner image data from an image scanner and/or locating said head of patient in a stereotactic spatial relationship to a stereotactic treatment machine comprising:

• a. a head immobilizer which includes at least one sagittal plane over-arm structure which is generally an elongated structure which is attached on one end to said couch and having on the opposite end of said over-arm structure a head attachment element which conforms to a portion of said head of the patient so as to orient said head of patient with respect to said over-arm structure;
• b. a target localizer that is adapted to be fixed with respect to said over-arm structure in a known position and including target coordinate indicator so that said target coordinates of said selected anatomical target can be set on said target coordinate indicator, and said target coordinate indicator can be used to physically reference the position of said selected anatomical target with respect to an external treatment apparatus.