Computer-assisted planning for a concentric tube robotic system in neurosurgery.

Purpose: Laser-induced thermotherapy in the brain is a minimally invasive procedure to denature tumor tissue. However, irregularly shaped brain tumors cannot be treated using existing commercial systems. Thus, we present a new concept for laser-induced thermotherapy using a concentric tube robotic system. The planning procedure is complex and consists of the optimal distribution of thermal laser ablations within a volume as well as design and configuration parameter optimization of the concentric tube robot.

Methods: We propose a novel computer-assisted planning procedure that decomposes the problem into task- and robot-specific planning and uses a multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm with variable length.

Results: The algorithm determines a Pareto-front of optimal ablation distributions for three patient datasets. It considers multiple objectives and determines optimal robot parameters for multiple trajectories to access the tumor volume.

Conclusions: We prove the effectiveness of our planning procedure to enable the treatment of irregularly shaped brain tumors. Multiple trajectories further increase the applicability of the procedure.