Minimally invasive, multi-port approach to the lateral skull base: a first in vitro evaluation.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to validate a minimally invasive, multi-port approach to the internal auditory canal at the lateral skull base on a cadaver specimen.

Methods: Fiducials and a custom baseplate were fixed on a cadaver skull, and a computed tomography image was acquired. Three trajectories from the mastoid surface to the internal auditory canal were computed with a custom planning tool.

Quality assurance of multiport image-guided minimally invasive surgery at the lateral skull base.

For multiport image-guided minimally invasive surgery at the lateral skull base a quality management is necessary to avoid the damage of closely spaced critical neurovascular structures. So far there is no standardized method applicable independently from the surgery. Therefore, we adapt a quality management method, the quality gates (QG), which is well established in, for example, the automotive industry and apply it to multiport image-guided minimally invasive surgery.