Trajectory planning method for reduced patient risk in image-guided neurosurgery: concept and preliminary results

We present a new preoperative planning method to quantify and help reduce the risk associated with needle and tool insertion trajectories in image-guided keyhole neurosurgery. The goal is to quantify the risk of a proposed straight trajectory, and/or to find the trajectory with the lowest risk to nearby brain structures based on pre-operative CT/MRI images. The method automatically computes the risk associated with a given trajectory, or finds the trajectory with the lowest risk to nearby brain structures based on preoperative image segmentation and on a risk volume map. The surgeon can revise the suggested trajectory, add a new one using interactive 3D visualization, and obtain a quantitative risk measure. The trajectory risk is evaluated based on the tool placement uncertainty, on the proximity of critical brain structures, and on a predefined table of quantitative geometric risk measures. Our preliminary results on a clinical dataset with eight targets show a significant reduction in trajectory risk and a shortening of the preoperative planning time as compared to the conventional method.