Abstract
Abstract As recently demonstrated, a passive Gough-Stewart platform (a.k.a. hexapod) can be used to create a personalized surgical template to achieve minimally invasive access to the cochlea. The legs of the hexapod are manually adjusted to the desired length, which must be read off an analog scale. Previous experiments have shown that manual length setting of the hexapod’s legs is error-prone because of the imprecise readability of the analog scale. The objective of this study is to determine if integration of a linear encoder and digitally displaying the measured length help reduce the length setting error. Two experiments were conducted where users set the leg length manually. In both experiments, the users were asked to set the leg length to 20 nominal values using the whole setting range from 0 mm to 10 mm. In the first experiment, users had to rely only on the analog scale; in the second experiment, the electronic display additionally showed the user the actual leg length. Results show that the mean length setting error without using the digital display and only relying on the analog scale was (0.036 ± 0.020) mm (max: 0.107 mm) in contrast to (0.001 ± 0.000) mm (max: 0.002 mm) for the experiment with the integrated digital measurement system. The results support integration of digital length measurement systems as a promising tool to increase the accuracy of surgical template fabrication and thereby patients’ safety. Future studies must be conducted to evaluate if integration of a linear encoder in each of the six legs is feasible.
Highlights
Microstereotactic frames (MSF) are under development to enable highly precise drilling of a surgical access based on a preoperative, individually planned trajectory
Provided freehanded assembly of its components cannot be done accurately, an alignment device for temporary pose setting is required until all parts are irreversibly glued together
Pose setting is achieved by adjusting the length of all six legs of the hexapod
Summary
Microstereotactic frames (MSF) are under development to enable highly precise drilling of a surgical access based on a preoperative, individually planned trajectory. This concept has been especially investigated and described in the context of minimally invasive cochlear implant surgery or neurosurgical interventions. In its current design, such alignment tool is based on a GoughStewart platform (hexapod) with manually adjustable leg lengths (see Figure 2). The top platform includes two dowel pins and a threaded hole, which is an identical mounting interface as on top of the reference frame This allows an exact fit and fixation of the surgical template both on the reference frame and the alignment tool.
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