Frameless stereotaxy in a transmandibular, circumglossal, retropharyngeal cervical decompression in a klippel-feil patient: technical note

Abstract

Frameless stereotaxy, while most commonly applied to intracranial surgery, has seen an increasing number of applications in spinal surgery. Its use in the spine has been described to a greater degree in posterior rather than anterior surgical approaches, presumably due to the relative paucity of anatomical landmarks appropriate for frameless stereotactic registration in the anterior spine. This technical note illustrates the previously undescribed, successful use of frameless stereotaxy to the transmandibular, circumglossal, retropharyngeal surgical approach in a patient with Klippel-Feil syndrome.