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Automated neurosurgical stereotactic planning for intraoperative use: a comprehensive review of the literature and perspectives

Abstract

The creation of intracranial stereotactic trajectories, from entry point to target point, is still mostly done manually by the neurosurgeon. The development of automated stereotactic planning tools has been described in the literature. This systematic review aims to assess the effectiveness of stereotactic planning procedure automation and develop tools for patients undergoing neurosurgical stereotactic procedures. PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Google Scholar, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials databases were searched from inception to September 1, 2019, at the exception of Google Scholar (from 1 January 2010 to September 1, 2019) in French and English. Eligible studies included all studies proposing automated stereotactic planning. A total of 1543 studies were screened. Forty-two studies were included in the systematic review, including 18 (42.9%) conference papers. The surgical procedures planned automatically were mainly deep brain stimulation (n = 14, 33.3%), stereoelectroencephalography (n = 12, 28.6%), and not specified (n = 10, 23.8%). The most frequently used surgical constraints to plan the trajectory were blood vessels (n = 32, 76.2%), cerebral sulci (n = 27, 64.3%), and cerebral ventricles (n = 23, 54.8%). The distance from blood vessels ranged from 1.96 to 4.78 mm for manual trajectories and from 2.47 to 7.0 mm for automated trajectories. At least one neurosurgeon was involved in 36 studies (85.7%). The automated stereotactic trajectory was preferred in 75.4% of the studied cases (range 30–92.9). Only 3 (7.1%) studies were multicentric. No study reported prospective use of the planning software. Stereotactic planning automation is a promising tool to provide valuable stereotactic trajectories for clinical applications.

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Acknowledgments

Chiara Benevello, Fabrice Chrétien, Bertrand Devaux, Edouard Dezamis, Philibert Duriez, Marc Harislur, Raphael Gaillard, Philip Gorwood, Jean-Louis Mas, Jean-François Meder, Baris Turak, Pascale Varlet, Gilles Zah-Bi.

Funding

The Fondapro Foundation under the auspices of the Académie Nationale de Chirurgie (National Academy of Surgery) and Nuovo Soldati Foundation provided financial support in the form of two scholarships.

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Pros and Cons of automated trajectory planning. (DOCX 16 kb)

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Zanello, M., Carron, R., Peeters, S. et al. Automated neurosurgical stereotactic planning for intraoperative use: a comprehensive review of the literature and perspectives. Neurosurg Rev 44, 867–888 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10143-020-01315-1

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Keywords

  • Automation
  • Software validation
  • Surgery, Computer-assisted
  • Stereotaxy
  • Deep brain stimulation