Motion planning in stereotaxic radiosurgery

Stereotaxic radiosurgery, which uses a beam of radiation as an ablative surgical instrument to destroy brain tumors, is considered. The beam is produced by a linear accelerator moved by a mechanical gantry. Radiation is concentrated by crossfiring at the tumor from multiple directions. Because access to and exit from the tumor is obstructed along some directions by critical brain structures (e.g., brainstem, optic nerves), planning the path of the beam is often difficult and time-consuming. A computer-based planner that assists the surgeon in generating a satisfactory path, given the spatial distribution of the brain tissues obtained with medical imaging, is described. Experimental results with the planner are presented, including a comparison with manually generated paths