ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Head and Neck Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1669974
Robotic assistance for skull base biopsy: a feasibility study in phantom and cadaver
Provisionally accepted
Jian-Hua Zhu
Xiao-Jing Liu*- Peking University Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China
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Objective : Biopsy of suspicious lesions in deeply situated target areas is the first step in clinical management. This study aims to investigate the feasibility and accuracy of a novel robot system for skull base biopsy guided by Cone beam CT (CBCT).The skull phantom and cadaveric specimen were used for tests. The biopsy were performed by a custom 7 degrees of freedom robot system. CBCT images were used for planning trajectories and the data were sent to the robot control unit. Following registration, the puncture needle was automatically inserted into the target by the robot guided by navigation. Location deviation was instantly calculated and the result was verified after postoperative image scanning.Results: All 20 interventions were successfully performed in phantom and cadaver respectively. In phantom experiments the mean placement error was 0.56± 0.21 mm (measured by the navigation system) vs. 1.77 ± 0.13 mm (measured by image fusion) (P < 0.001); in cadaveric studies the corresponding figures were 0.71 ± 0.15 mm vs. 3.10 ± 0.18 mm (P < 0.001). Accuracy was better in the phantom experiment (P < 0.001). The Pearson Correlation Coefficients (r) was 0.639 and 0.723 in 删除了: r phantom experiments and cadaveric studies respectively.The performance of robot-assisted skull base biopsy is feasible and accurate. Clinical tests will need to be demonstrated in further studies.
Keywords: robot, Skull Base, navigation, Biopsy, Precision
Received: 21 Jul 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhu and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiao-Jing Liu, Peking University Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China
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