Computer-assisted Interactive Three-dimensional Planning Neurosurgical Procedures

Abstract

WE HAVE USED three-dimensional reconstruction magnetic resonance imaging techniques to understand the anatomic complexity of operative brain lesions and to improve preoperative surgical planning. We report out experience with 14 cases, including intra- and extra-axial tumors and a vascular malformation. In each casl preoperative planning was performed using magnetic resonance imaging-based three-dimensional renderings ot surgically critical structures, such as eloquent cortices, gray matter nuclei, white matter tracts, and blood vessel. Simulations, using the interactive manipulation of three-dimensional data, provided an efficient and comprehensive way to appreciate the anatomic relationships. Interactive three-dimensional computer-assisted preoperative simulations provided otherwise inaccessible information that was useful for the surgical removal of brain lesions