The application accuracy of the NeuroMate robot--A quantitative comparison with frameless and frame-based surgical localization systems.

The NeuroMatetrade mark robot system (Integrated Surgical Systems, Davis, CA) is a commercially available, image-guided, robotic-assisted system used for stereotactic procedures in neurosurgery. In this article, we present a quantitative comparison of the application accuracy of the NeuroMate with that of standard frame-based and frameless stereotactic techniques. The article discusses a five-way application accuracy comparison study. The variables of our comparison and their mean errors are as follows: (1) with the robot in a frame-based configuration, the RMS was 0.86 +/- 0.32 mm; (2) with the robot in the frameless configuration, the RMS was 1.95 +/- 0.44 mm; (3) in a standard stereotactic (ZD) frame-based approach, the RMS was 1.17 +/- 0.25 mm; (4) with an infrared tracking system using the frame for fiducial registration, the RMS was 1.47 +/- 0.45 mm; (5) with an infrared tracking system using screw markers for registration, the RMS was 0.68 +/- 0.26 mm. The study was performed with 2-mm sections of CT scans. These results show that the application accuracy of the frame-based NeuroMate robot is comparable to that of standard localizing systems, whether they are frame-based or infrared tracked. Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.