Review of Robotic Technology for Stereotactic Neurosurgery

Abstract

The research of stereotactic apparatus to guide surgical devices began in 1908, yet a major part of today's stereotactic neurosurgeries still rely on stereotactic frames developed almost half a century ago. Robots excel at handling spatial information, and are, thus, obvious candidates in the guidance of instrumentation along precisely planned trajectories. In this review, we introduce the concept of stereotaxy and describe a standard stereotactic neurosurgery. Neurosurgeons' expectations and demands regarding the role of robots as assistive tools are also addressed. We list the most successful robotic systems developed specifically for or capable of executing stereotactic neurosurgery. A critical review is presented for each robotic system, emphasizing the differences between them and detailing positive features and drawbacks. An analysis of the listed robotic system features is also undertaken, in the context of robotic application in stereotactic neurosurgery. Finally, we discuss the current perspective, and future directions of a robotic technology in this field. All robotic systems follow a very similar and structured workflow despite the technical differences that set them apart. No system unequivocally stands out as an absolute best. The trend of technological progress is pointing toward the development of miniaturized cost-effective solutions with more intuitive interfaces.

A Novel Robotic Neuronavigation System: RONNA G3

“…The robots are equipped with surgical tools (guides, grippers, drill, etc.). A specific characteristic of the RONNA G3 system with respect to the most current state-ofthe art robotic neurosurgical systems [29] to [32] is an additional mobile platform equipped with a compliant and sensitive robotic arm which makes it a dual-arm robot system (master and assistant robots). The robots are standard six degree-of-freedom (DOF) revolute robots.…”

“…These systems are not included in the current state-of-the-art literature survey and review papers [29] to [32]; this demonstrates the very rapid development of the field of robotized neuronavigation medical.…”

CT-guided Stereotactic Microsurgical Resection of Cerebral Mass Lesions

“…Meanwhile, Leksell established the basis of a novel system combining the cartesian system with other systems, which consisted of an apparatus fixed to Guiot et al 6,7 and Riechert and Mundinger 8 were the first investigators to introduce open stereotactic craniotomy, which was then enjoyed broader applications and further refinements owing to the advances in the field of medical imaging such as computerized tomography 9 and magnetic resonance imaging 10 . Current image-guided stereotactic procedures include biopsy [11][12][13][14][15] , cyst aspiration 16,17 , focal irradiation 18,19 , and hematoma evacuation [20][21][22] , neuroaugmentation 22,23 , stereotactic robotic microsurgery [24][25][26] and neural transplantation 27,28 . These techniques facilitate precise localization and resection of lesions in eloquent regions of brain and help minimize operative injury to the surrounding tissues.…”

Robust stereo matching with trinary cross color census and triple image-based refinements

“…The measure of the distance of the scene for robotic systems [1,2], self-directed vehicles [3], or 3D video broadcasting systems [4,5] is an important research topic in computer vision. For 3D video broadcasting, a small number of selected views, which include the color texture frames and gray depth maps, are coded by the 3D-HEVC coders [6,7].…”