Computer assisted skull base surgery: a contemporary review

Alexander K Bartella; Steven G Hoshal; Bernd Lethaus; E Bradley Strong

doi:10.1515/iss-2021-0020

Computer assisted skull base surgery: a contemporary review

Innov Surg Sci. 2022 Jun 30;8(3):149-157. doi: 10.1515/iss-2021-0020. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Alexander K Bartella¹, Steven G Hoshal², Bernd Lethaus¹, E Bradley Strong²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Leipzig University Leipzig, Germany.
² Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA.

Abstract

Skull base surgery has evolved significantly since Harvey Cushing's first descriptions in the early 1900s. Computer aided surgery (CAS) applications continue to expand; they include virtual surgical planning, augmented and virtual reality, 3D printing of models/cutting guides/implants, surgical navigation, and intraoperative imaging. The authors will review the current skull base CAS literature and propose a computer aided surgical workflow categorizing these applications into 3 phases: 1) Virtual planning, 2) Surgical execution, 3) Intraoperative verification.

Keywords: 3D printing; VSP; augmented reality; computer aided surgery; intraoperative CT; navigation; virtual reality.

Publication types

Review