gms | German Medical Science

58. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e. V. (DGNC)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC) e. V.

26. bis 29.04.2007, Leipzig

Virtual reality for minimally invasive neurosurgery planning

Virtuelle Realität zur Planung minimalinvasiver, neurochirurgischer Eingriffe

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author A. Stadie - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz
  • R. Kockro - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz
  • R. Reisch - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz
  • A. Tropine - Institut für Neuroradiologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz
  • S. Boor - Institut für Neuroradiologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz
  • P. Stoeter - Institut für Neuroradiologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz
  • A. Perneczky - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 58. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e.V. (DGNC). Leipzig, 26.-29.04.2007. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2007. DocSA.10.05

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dgnc2007/07dgnc198.shtml

Published: April 11, 2007

© 2007 Stadie et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

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Objective: We are reporting on our first experiences with a three dimensional virtual reality planning system in routine use for planning of minimally invasive neurosurgical procedures.

Methods: From October 2002 until April 2006 we have used the Dextroscope (Volume Interactions Pte. Ltd., Singapore) to plan neurosurgical procedures in 106 cases. The patients were suffering from a wide range of neurosurgical processes, including 100 intracranial lesions and 6 spinal pathologies. The neurosurgical planning was performed 1 to 3 days preoperatively and in 12 cases 3D prints of the planning procedure were taken into the operating room. A questionnaire was filled in by the neurosurgeon after completing the planning procedure.

Results: After a short period of becoming acquainted wih the system,it proved to be easy to operate and we are currently using it routinely for preoperative planning of difficult cases. It was felt that working with a virtual reality, multimodal model of the patient improves surgical planning significantly. The patho-anatomy of individual cases could easily be understood in great detail and this enabled us to determine the surgical trajectory precisely and in the most minimally invasive way. The preoperative 3D model was found to be in high concordance with the intra-operative conditions and an intra-operative “deja-vu” feeling enhanced surgical confidence. In all cases planned with the Dextroscope, the chosen surgical strategy proved to be the right one.

Conclusions: Three dimensional virtual reality models of a patient seems to allow a better and faster understanding of complex intracranial processes. It enables the surgeon to interact with the patient data and offers a completely new way of planning neurosurgical procedures.