Computer-assisted planning for a concentric tube robotic system in neurosurgery

Laser-induced thermotherapy in the brain is a minimally invasive procedure to denature tumor tissue. However, irregularly shaped brain tumors cannot be treated using existing commercial systems. Thus, we present a new concept for laser-induced thermotherapy using a concentric tube robotic system. The planning procedure is complex and consists of the optimal distribution of thermal laser ablations within a volume as well as design and configuration parameter optimization of the concentric tube robot.

We propose a novel computer-assisted planning procedure that decomposes the problem into task- and robot-specific planning and uses a multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm with variable length.

The algorithm determines a Pareto-front of optimal ablation distributions for three patient datasets. It considers multiple objectives and determines optimal robot parameters for multiple trajectories to access the tumor volume.

We prove the effectiveness of our planning procedure to enable the treatment of irregularly shaped brain tumors. Multiple trajectories further increase the applicability of the procedure.