Misleading depth perception may greatly affect the correct identification of complex structures in image-guided surgery. In this study, we propose a novel importance-driven hybrid rendering method to enhance perception for navigated endoscopic surgery. First, the volume structures are enhanced using gradient-based shading to reduce the color information in low-priority regions and improve the distinctions between complicated structures. Second, an importance sorting method based on the order-independent transparency rendering is introduced to intensify the perception of multiple surfaces. Third, volume data are adaptively truncated and emphasized with respect to the perspective orientation and the illustration of critical information for viewing range extension. Various experimental results prove that with the combination of volume and surface rendering, our method can effectively improve the depth distinction of multiple objects both in simulated and clinical scenes. Our importance-driven surface rendering method demonstrates improved average performance and statistical significance as rated by 15 participants (five clinicians and ten non-clinicians) on a five-point Likert scale. Further, the average frame rate of hybrid rendering with thin-layer sectioning reaches 42 fps. Given that the process of the hybrid rendering is fully automatic, it can be utilized in real-time surgical navigation to improve the rendering efficiency and information validity. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement