Robotic Assistance for Precise Spinal Injections: Development and Clinical Verification.

Area of Science:

• Neurosurgery
• Robotics in Medicine
• Medical Imaging and Navigation

Background:

• Robot-assisted surgical systems are established for procedures like pedicle screw instrumentation.
• Existing systems have limited application in spinal injections and needle delivery.
• No commercial robotic system is currently available for assisting spinal injections.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel robotic system for stereotactic assistance in spinal injections and needle placement.
• To address the gap in commercially available robotic solutions for spinal needle delivery.

Main Methods:

• Development of a robotic system integrating a collaborative manipulator and stereoscopic navigation.
• Implementation of a robot motion planner with collision avoidance for surgical environments.
• Validation through a clinical phantom study involving 60 needle plans executed by expert surgeons.

Main Results:

• The proposed robotic guidance system demonstrated high accuracy in phantom studies.
• A mean target point error of 1.02 mm with a standard deviation of 0.5 mm was achieved.
• The system proved adept for surgical settings, ensuring collision avoidance.

Conclusions:

• The developed robotic system shows significant potential for accurate spinal needle and injection delivery.
• This technology can aid surgeons in achieving precise needle placement during spinal procedures.
• Further integration of robotic assistance in minimally invasive spinal interventions is warranted.