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Updated: Jan 17, 2026
Neuronavigation and Laparoscopy Guided Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt Insertion for the Treatment of Hydrocephalus
Published on: October 14, 2022
A Low-Cost Articulated Arm Navigation System for External Ventricular Drain Placement
Alexander D Smith1, Anant Naik2, Suguna Pappu3
1Siebel School of Computing and Data Science and the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 USA.
Objective:
This paper proposes a low-cost real-time navigation system to assist a surgeon in placing external ventricular drains.
Methods:
In our approach, the base of an articulated arm coordinate measuring machine is bolted to the patient's skull, and a graphical user interface quickly guides the operator through the image registration and 3D navigation to place an external ventricular drain at a desired target specified relative to preoperative imaging. The method can be employed in workflows with and without fiducials embedded in the preoperative imaging.
Results:
The proposed system is evaluated using precise registration instruments, human phantom models, and ex vivo ovine models, demonstrating less than 2 mm of error with fiducials and less than 4 mm of error without fiducials.
Conclusion:
The registration procedure takes less than one minute and can be performed intuitively by a single operator without an assistant.
Significance:
Our proposed system enables real-time image-guided navigation to be used in bedside external ventricular drain placement, with potential to expand access to this procedure.
