Review of Stereotactic and Neuronavigation Brain Biopsy Methods in the Dog

Abstract

Objective:To perform a review of brain biopsies in the canine species and determine if it is possible to compare the stereotactic and neuronavigation results. Method:A search was performed in NCBI's PubMed database for stereotactic or neuronavigational canine brain biopsy publications and articles which met at least one of the inclusion criteria and not any of the exclusion criteria were selected. The inclusion criteria were: 1) assessment of the specifi city of the biopsy, 2) assessment of system accuracy, 3) assessment of the biopsy results, and 4) duration of the procedure. Results:Only one article met all the inclusion criteria. Eleven articles that partially met the criteria were used for comparison. Authors used different stereotaxic methods and two used neuronavigation equipment. The authors of the stereotactic studies either adapted devices from human medicine or developed their own devices; the level of accuracy was variable (errors of 0.0 mm to 5.1 mm), and the two articles that used animals with spontaneous lesions had a diagnostic specifi city rate higher than 90 percent. The accuracy of the neuronavigation studies was approximately 3.3 mm; however, no live animals were used. Conclusions:It was not possible to properly compare stereotactic and neuronavigation techniques. To do so, the methodologies and the assessed parameters need to be standardized.

Application accuracy of a frameless optical neuronavigation system as a guide for craniotomies in dogs

“…Applications accuracies of 0.9 mm and 3.5 mm and median values of 0.83 and 2.7 mm have been described for veterinary frame-based stereotactic systems [19,20,23,25,26,28,29]. It is currently impossible to recommend the use of either frame-based or frameless stereotactic systems for brain biopsies in veterinary neurology since reported data regarding application accuracy, morbidity, mortality and duration of the procedure are very inhomogeneous [31]. However, there are some advantages and disadvantages of both systems, which should be explained brie y:…”