A rigid positioning and orienting portion of a handheld surgical apparatus has a 3D tracking marker monolithically integrated within its structure, and is thereby trackable using a suitable a tracker. The tracker may be a 2D imaging tracker and may be a non- stereo optical tracker. The tracking marker may be monolithically integrated during the manufacture of the apparatus. A surgical monitoring system employing the surgical apparatus, further comprises the tracker, and a single fiducial reference bearing at least three identifiable location points disposed along at least two non-parallel lines. Based on prior scan data of the fiducial reference, the location and orientation of the fiducial reference are determined using the location points despite only a portion of the fiducial being observable by a scanner during the prior scan. An associated method is provided for determining the location and orientation of the tracking marker based on predetermined locations points and image information from a tracker.
