title: Quantifying workspace and forces of surgical dissection during robot-assisted neurosurgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A prerequisite for successful robot-assisted neurosurgery is to use a hand-controller matched with characteristics of real robotic microsurgery. This study reports quantified data pertaining to the required workspace and exerted forces of surgical tools during robot-assisted microsurgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  A surgeon conducted four operations in which the neuroArm surgical system, an image-guided computer-assisted manipulator specifically designed to perform robot-assisted neurosurgery, was employed to surgically remove brain tumors. The position, orientation, and exerted force of surgical tools were measured during operations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Workspace of the neuroArm manipulators, for the cases studied, was 60×60×60 mm(3) while it offered orientation ranges of 103°, 62° and 112°. The surgical tools exerted a maximum force of 1.86 N with frequency band of less than 20 Hz.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This data provides important information specific to neurosurgery that can be used to select among commercially available, or further design a customized, haptic hand-controller for robot-assisted neurosurgical systems. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Project neuroArm, Department of Clinical Neuroscience and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, 1C58-HRIC, 3280 Hospital Dr NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4Z6, Canada.
authors.forename: Yaser
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Maddahi
authors.affiliation: Project neuroArm, Department of Clinical Neuroscience and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, 1C58-HRIC, 3280 Hospital Dr NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4Z6, Canada.
authors.forename: Liu Shi
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.affiliation: Project neuroArm, Department of Clinical Neuroscience and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, 1C58-HRIC, 3280 Hospital Dr NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4Z6, Canada.
authors.forename: Kourosh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zareinia
authors.affiliation: Project neuroArm, Department of Clinical Neuroscience and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, 1C58-HRIC, 3280 Hospital Dr NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4Z6, Canada.
authors.forename: Sanju
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lama
authors.affiliation: Fluid Power and Telerobotics Research Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Manitoba, 75A Chancellor Circle, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 5V6, Canada.
authors.forename: Nariman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sepehri
authors.affiliation: Project neuroArm, Department of Clinical Neuroscience and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, 1C58-HRIC, 3280 Hospital Dr NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4Z6, Canada.
authors.forename: Garnette R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Sutherland
mesh_terms: D004210:Dissection / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D065287:Robotic Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*
keywords: fast Fourier transform; force analysis; hand-controller; haptics; neuroArm; robot-assisted surgery; workspace