Scan, Aim, Go: A Compact Brain Drill Guide for Accelerating Minimally-Invasive Neurosurgeries

Motivation: Trajectory guides for MR-guided neurosurgeries have time-consuming, complex workflows. Trajectories are oriented by iterating between imaging and device manipulation. Noniterative approaches could reduce complexity and anesthesia time. Goal(s): To create and validate a trajectory guide that enables faster, accurate trajectory guidance in minimally-invasive neurosurgeries. Approach: Using new hardware and software, a single scan approach was used to perform drill guidance and device insertion on phantoms and cadaver heads. Results: The proposed methodology accurately guided needles to targets within cadaver brains using a single targeting scan. The initial design produced a radial error of 1.54±0.81mm. Impact: The proposed device and software accelerate trajectory guidance in minimally-invasive neurosurgeries by reducing the number of acquired scans and procedural steps. This approach simplifies and accelerates procedures which minimizes time under anesthesia.