Automatic target and trajectory identification for deep brain stimulation (DBS) procedures.

This paper presents an automatic surgical target and trajectory identification technique for planning deep brain stimulation (DBS) procedures. The probabilistic functional maps, constructed from population-based actual stimulating field information and intra-operative electrophysiological activities, were integrated into a neurosurgical visualization and navigation system to facilitate the surgical planning and guidance. In our preliminary studies, we compared the actual surgical target locations and trajectories established by an experienced stereotactic neurosurgeon with those automatically planned using our probabilistic functional maps on 10 subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS procedures. The average displacement between the surgical target locations in both groups was 1.82mm with a standard deviation of 0.77mm. The difference between the surgical trajectories was 3.1 degrees and 2.3 degrees in the lateral-to-medial and anterior-to-posterior orientations respectively.