Computer assisted skull base surgery: a contemporary review

Skull base surgery has evolved significantly since Harvey Cushing's first descriptions in the early 1900s. Computer aided surgery (CAS) applications continue to expand; they include virtual surgical planning, augmented and virtual reality, 3D printing of models/cutting guides/implants, surgical navigation, and intraoperative imaging. The authors will review the current skull base CAS literature and propose a computer aided surgical workflow categorizing these applications into 3 phases: 1) Virtual planning, 2) Surgical execution, 3) Intraoperative verification.