Atlas-guided neurosurgery

Preoperative determination of coordinates of an anatomical target in neurosurgeries by software is explained. During the process, Schaltenbrand-Warren (SW) brain atlas is deformed to make fit it into a particular subject´s anatomy. Coronal brain atlas slices are placed on the midsagittal plane of a subject´s image data, which is acquired with fiducial points. Precise placement of sagittal brain atlas slices is achieved with respect to location of anterior (AC) and posterior commissure (PC) points of the brain on image data. A match of a coronal atlas slice with its corresponding coronal image data and zooming of image data is followed by manual marking of analog points from the coronal atlas slice and zoomed coronal image slice. Finally, the deformation of brain atlas and its placement onto its proper place on a subject´s coronal brain image enables the calculation of the coordinates of the predefined target. The calculation of coordinates of the predefined target depending on a pixel-length rationalization method by the use of fiducial points on CT/MR scans yields more accurate results than those that can be obtained with current methods.