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Original Article

Experimental Robotic Milling in Skull-Base Surgery

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Pages 42-48 | Received 28 Mar 2002, Accepted 18 Dec 2002, Published online: 06 Jan 2010
 

Abstract

Objective: In the field of otorhinolaryngology, a variety of skull implants have been developed to assist hearing-impaired or even deaf patients. The first step in the implantation procedure, and also in lateral skull-base surgery, is to drill the calvarian or mastoid bone. We intended to investigate the hitherto unknown parameters for performing this procedure and to establish the first set-up for robotic milling of the lateral skull base.

Materials and Methods: Experimental milling of the skull base was conducted on two human specimens using a hexapod robot.

Results: Optimized parameters were determined with a drill speed of 30,000 revolutions/min and a form feed rate of 5 mm/s for the calvarium and 1 mm/s for mastoid bone, respectively, in a spiral-path fashion. While using a cutting burr, mean force levels were 4.81 N for calvarian bone and 6.12 N for mastoid bone, respectively—well below our empirical limit of 10 N. However, maximum levels easily surpassed these limits, reaching 27.7 N.

Conclusion: The prerequisites for robotic skull-base surgery were fulfilled. With further work to implement feedback of sensory input, robots may increase precision for various tasks in skull-base surgery.

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