An Adaptive Electric Field Stereotaxis Method for Brain Surgical Navigation

Intracranial invasive surgeries cannot rely on simple endoscopic navigation, and existing intraoperative navigation methods do not satisfy the requirements for real-time performance and high precision. In this study, we propose an adaptive method for real-time, high-precision navigation of the brain that is adaptable to various head characteristics. This study investigates the effects of different skull and brain conductivities on navigation accuracy. The electric field stereotaxis (EFS) method is a technique that uses a simple electric field to position and navigate invasive surgical instruments. A multilayer simulation experiment and navigation tests on various head models with different conductivities were conducted to validate the proposed method. Results indicated that when the conductivity of the skull was doubled, the positioning accuracy improved by 31.3% using adaptive method. The proposed approach significantly improves the applicability and accuracy in diverse scenarios.