Robotic assisted open cranial vault reconstruction for craniosynostosis

In some institutions open cranial vault reconstruction involves a virtual planning stage in which a computed tomography scan of the cranium of a patient is used to determine appropriate sawing lines to rearrange the bone. As a method to transfer this planning in a time efficient manner a robotic workflow is developed. This robotic workflow is implemented within a simulated and simplified version of this operation. The mean Euclidean error of this implemented workflow is 3.9 mm (±0.79 SD), 4.0 mm (± 1.1 SD) and 3.9 (± 0.78 SD) for 3 distinct registration trajectories. This error makes the robotic workflow in its current implementation and with the currently used materials not accurate enough for a clinical implementation. The relatively large inaccuracy of the Viper 850 robotic in determining its end effector pose is the cause of a large part of this error. It is recommended to replace the used industrial robot with a robot from which its internal parameters are determined with a higher accuracy and to use a stereo camera setup with higher lens magnification and a more narrow FOV so that the tracking system is a better fit for the surgical procedure.