Experimental research on efficacy of intelligent human-machine collaborative robot-assisted cranio-tomy system

Objective To explore the accuracy, efficiency and safety of robot-assisted craniotomy system named Cranibot. Methods The robot system called Cranibot was developed by Department of Neurosurgery, The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital and Institute of Intelligent Robotics, Beijing Institute of Technology and then employed to carry out randomized controlled experiments on 3 kinds of subjects including 8 3D-printing PVC (polyvinyl chloride) skull models, 5 cadaveric pig heads and 5 living Bama miniature pigs. Both left and right sides were symmetrically selected in each subject to perform craniotomy, and on each side 4 holes were drilled to form a square bone flap. One part of the skull on one side was randomly categorized into the experimental group in which craniotomy was performed by robot system, and its symmetrical part of skull on the other side belonged to the control group in which craniotomy was performed by the same neurosurgeon team. We observed and measured the drilling position error, time spent on craniotomy and incidence of tissue injury in the two groups. Results In skull model experiments, the average position error and time spent on craniotomy of "robot" group were 1.87±0.66 mm and 6.64±1.15 min, and those of "surgeon" group were 3.14±0.73 mm and 8.06±1.10 min respectively. The differences were statistically significant (both P 0.05). Conclusion The robot-assisted craniotomy system named Cranibot could improve the accuracy and efficiency of craniotomy, while its safety requires further research with large sample size. Key words: Robotics; Neurosurgical procedures; Man-machine systems; Models, animal