ROBO-SIM: a simulator for minimally invasive neurosurgery using an active manipulator.

This application report describes the software system ROBO-SIM, which is a planning and simulation tool for minimally invasive neurosurgery. Using actual patient's datasets, ROBO-SIM includes all planning steps necessary. These are; defining the trepanation point for entry into the skull and the target point within the depth of the brain, checking the surgical track, performing virtual trepanations (virtual craniotomy), and defining sanctioned volumes for use with an intra-operative active manipulator.

Renal transplantation in children. Analysis of 25 consecutive transplants in 19 recipients.

Eighteen children aged 6 to 17 years received 24 cadaveric renal transplants between January 1965 and July 1971, and a further child received a kidney donated by her father. 12 children are alive with good functioning grafts and another 2 children are alive on haemodialysis awaiting a further renal graft. The clinical problems of renal transplantation in children are discussed with particular reference to the side effects of immunosuppressive therapy.

Thymectomy and renal homotransplantation.

The course of forty-six consecutive patients were studied for 3½–5 years after renal homotransplantation from related and unrelated donors. Transthoracic thymectomy was performed before transplantation in twenty-four cases; the other twenty-two recipients served as controls. A similar spectrum of donor-recipient lymphocyte antigen compatibility was present in both the test and control series.