Toward a preoperative planning tool for brain tumor resection therapies

Neurosurgical procedures involving tumor resection require surgical planning such that the surgical path to the tumor is determined to minimize the impact on healthy tissue and brain function. This work demonstrates a predictive tool to aid neurosurgeons in planning tumor resection therapies by finding an optimal model-selected patient orientation that minimizes lateral brain shift in the field of view. Such orientations may facilitate tumor access and removal, possibly reduce the need for retraction, and could minimize the impact of brain shift on image-guided procedures.

In this study, preoperative magnetic resonance images were utilized in conjunction with pre- and post-resection laser range scans of the craniotomy and cortical surface to produce patient-specific finite element models of intraoperative shift for 6 cases. These cases were used to calibrate a model (i.e., provide general rules for the application of patient positioning parameters) as well as determine the current model-based framework predictive capabilities. Finally, an objective function is proposed that minimizes shift subject to patient position parameters. Patient positioning parameters were then optimized and compared to our neurosurgeon as a preliminary study.

The proposed model-driven brain shift minimization objective function suggests an overall reduction of brain shift by 23 % over experiential methods.

This work recasts surgical simulation from a trial-and-error process to one where options are presented to the surgeon arising from an optimization of surgical goals. To our knowledge, this is the first realization of an evaluative tool for surgical planning that attempts to optimize surgical approach by means of shift minimization in this manner.