Head positioning
The positioning of the patient's head during preoperative imaging plays no relevant role in intraoperative accuracy of neuronavigation. However, further studies and a larger number of patients with various pathologies in different regions of the brain are necessary to obtain a better understanding of the problem of brain shift in neuronavigation due to patient positioning alone, and to avoid procedure-related operative morbidity 1).
Head positioning and the degree of rotation for anterior communicating artery aneurysm surgery is controversial.
1)
Reinges MH, Krings T, Nguyen HH, Hans FJ, Korinth MC, Höller M, Küker W, Thiex
R, Spetzger U, Gilsbach JM. Is the head position during preoperative image data
acquisition essential for the accuracy of navigated brain tumor surgery? Comput
Aided Surg. 2000;5(6):426-32. PubMed PMID: 11295855.