Research Technician Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C Ashburn , Virginia
Rationale: The current gold standard workflow for stereotactic targeting of structures in the brain involves preoperative manual path planning by a neurosurgeon. This is often time-consuming and laborious especially for multiple targets. Methods: We developed a brute force-based path planner in MATLAB software. The segmentation module of the open source 3D slicer software was used to semi-automatically segment the critical structures and hippocampus. The path planner generated a single resolution complete and optimal path which maximized the penetration along the longitudinal axis of the hippocampal head and body with a minimum of 2 mm margin from critical structures on two anonymous imaging datasets. Data obtained include degree of hippocampal penetration (in comparison to its geometric mean axis), distance from surround critical structures, and trajectory computation time. Results: The mean degree of hippocampal penetration was 105% compared to the hippocampal geometric mean (Δ = 5% range: 101.4 – 108.7 %). The average minimum distance between the trajectory boundaries and surrounding critical structures along the entire trajectory length was 2.12 mm. The mean computational time was 102.5 mins (range: 75 – 130 mins). Conclusions: Our results showed that our path planning algorithm obtained a degree of hippocampal penetration that was superior to the hippocampal geometric mean while maintain a safe margin from surrounding critical structures with a reasonable computation time. This path planner has good potential for further application for multiple trajectory planning in robotic stereotactic EEG (SEEG) depth electrode implantation procedures. Funding: Please list any funding that was received in support of this abstract.: None
