Development and evaluation of a registration methodology for information-guided precision robotic laser neurosurgery system

To establish safe, precise, and minimally invasive surgery, Computer Aided Surgery (CAS) systems, such as intra-operative imaging and navigation system to detect the location of the target of therapy, and surgical robot system, are very powerful tools. There is strong need to combine these CAS systems for fusion of advanced diagnosis and treatment technologies. In this paper, we introduce our new method to register the intraoperative imaging information, robotic surgery system, and patient using surgical navigation system. Using our Open-MRI navigation system and laser surgery system for neurosurgery, we can make registration between these system and patient precisely. The experimental result shows that the error on the registration between image data and the laser surgery system is low enough to fulfill the requirement of laser surgery system in the use of high-resolution image data. This system realizes the safe, precise and minimally invasive neurosurgery by the combination of intra-operative diagnosis and advanced therapeutic device.