FOR 1585:  Multiport Bone Surgery at the Otobase

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering ; Mechanical and Industrial Engineering ; Medicine
• Term: from 2010 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 179880849

The Research Unit focusses on the investigation of surgical procedures at the otobasis aiming on the minimisation of tissue damage. This complies to the patient’s request for minimally traumatic surgical procedures with predictable risks and lowered morbidity. Furthermore, it is in compliance with the health insurance funds’ wishes for decreased costs and medicolegally comprehensible, objectively documented surgical techniques. The patient could benefit from a shorter stay at the clinic and a faster re-integration into employment and social life as well as less functional long-term consequences and indiscernible aesthetic changes. Moreover, the miniaturised surgical field would lower the infection risk.
The surgical procedure to be developed shall be independent from the surgeon and his or her daily performance and provide an increased ubiquitous reproducibility of the surgery’s outcome. Thus, the surgeon will receive assistance for his manual skills to accomplish the task with high precision and minimised errors. This will result in an increased predictability of the surgery’s outcome and possible complications (the aim is a maximum complication rate of 0.5 percent).
So far, there exist no surgical procedures based on multiangular drilling at the otobasis. Instead, the surgeon dissects all collision structures in the surgical field (explorative surgery) with the implication of higher morbidity. No one would “blindly” drill a whole into the otobasis, neither freehand nor with the assistance of current medical navigation systems (confirmative surgery). The surgeon would be prevented from doing so since there are vital structures within the bone: carotid artery, facial nerve, equilibrium and acoustic organs.
Considering the workflow, there are several questions to be answered - in the fields of medicine, image acquisition and processing as well as measurement engineering. The interdisciplinary cooperation between the members of this Research Unit - each having its own designated excellent competencies - represents all necessary qualifications to achieve the desired goals.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Application of non-linear access paths for MUKNO (Applicant Stallkamp, Jan )
• Computer-assisted planning of nonlinear access paths for MUKNO (Applicant Fellner, Dieter W. )
• Demonstrator an sonodynamic ablative procedures (Applicant Schipper, Jörg )
• Evaluation of nonlinear approaches and manipulation space (Applicant Schipper, Jörg )
• Multi-Port-Knochenchirurgie am Beispiel der Otobasis (MUKNO) - Koordinationsprojekt (Applicant Schipper, Jörg )
• Navigation of the drilling capsule (Applicant Fellner, Dieter W. )
• Risk assessment of minimally invasive surgery at the otobasis (Applicant Schmitt, Robert Heinrich )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Jörg Schipper