Miniature robot-based precise targeting system for keyhole neurosurgery: concept and preliminary results


L. Joskowicz (1), M. Shoham (2,3), R. Shamir (1), M. Freiman (1), E. Zehavi
(3), Y. Shoshan (4)

(1) School of Engineering and Computer Science, The Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem, Israel. 
(2) Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Technion, Haifa, Israel. 
(3) Mazor Surgical Technologies, Caesarea, Israel. 
(4) Dept. of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine, Hadassah University Hospital, Israel.

Abstract: 

This paper describes a novel system for precise automatic targeting in
minimally invasive neurosurgery. The system consists of a miniature robot
fitted with a rigid mechanical guide for needle, catheter, or probe
insertion.  Intraoperatively, the robot is directly affixed to the patient
skull or to a head clamp. It automatically positions itself with respect to
predefined targets in a preoperative CT/MRI image following a three-way
anatomical registration with an intraoperative 3D laser scan of the patient
face features.  We describe the system architecture, surgical protocol,
software modules, and implementation.  Registration results on 19 pairs of
real MRI and 3D laser scan data show an RMS error of 1.0mm (std=0.95mm) in
2secs.

Keywords: computer-aided neurosurgery, medical robotics, multimodal
registration.

Published in: 19th Int. Congress on Computer-Assisted Radiology and
Surgery, CARS 2005, H.U. Lemke et. al. editors, Springer-Verlag, Berlin,
Germany, June 2005, pp 618--623.