Roles of Stereotactic Surgical Robot Systems in Neurosurgery

Abstract

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. An important trend of surgical procedure is minimally invasive surgery (MIS). Neurosurgery is an important part of the surgical field that may lead in trends. The MIS provides surgeons use of a variety of techniques to operate with less injury to the body than with open surgery. In general, it is safer than open surgery and allows patients to recover faster and heal with less pain and scarring. There are various techniques and medical devices for improving the MIS. Recently, robotic surgery was introduced to MIS. Advanced robotic systems give doctors greater control and vision during surgery, allowing them to perform safe, less invasive, and precise surgical procedures. On the one hand, several robotic systems have been developed for use in neurosurgery. Some of those neurosurgical robots have been commercialized and used in clinical practice while others have not been used because of safety and ethical issues. This paper provides a brief review on robotic systems for neurosurgery, primarily focusing on commercially available systems.