Towards intra-operative OCT guidance for automatic head surgery: first experimental results.

In recent years, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has gained increasing attention not only as an imaging device, but also as a guidance system for surgical interventions. In this contribution, we propose OCT as an external high-accuracy guidance system, and present an experimental setup of an OCT combined with a cutting laser. This setup enables not only in situ monitoring, but also automatic, high-accuracy, three-dimensional navigation and processing. Its applicability is evaluated simulating a robotic assisted surgical intervention, including planning, navigation, and processing. First results demonstrate that OCT is suitable as a guidance system, fulfilling accuracy demands of interventions such as the cochlear implant surgery.