Table 1.
Summary of selected manuscripts reporting robot-assisted brain biopsy. “Pt” means patient. “Not reported” signifies that the authors do not make mention of this in the manuscript, whilst “None reported” signifies that the authors state this outcome did not occur within the study
| Author (year) City/state, country |
Study design (level of evidence*) | Number of patients Age and sex |
Robot | Diagnostic biopsy rate | Accuracy | Complications | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kwoh (1988) California, USA |
Case report (level 4) |
1 pt 52-year-old male |
Unimation Puma 200 robot | 1/1 (100%) | None reported | None reported | |
| Glauser (1995) Lausanne, Switzerland |
Case series (level 4) |
8 pts | Minerva robot | 6/8 (75%) | 0.1–0.5 mm | None reported | Use of robot aborted in one operation owing to geometric inaccessibility |
| Willems (2003) Utrecht, the Netherlands |
Case series (level 4) |
23 pts Median 53 years (range 22–74 years) 14 female and 9 male |
MKM robot with instrument holder | 22/23 (96%) | 3.3 ± 1.7 mm using bone screws 4.5 ± 2 mm using adhesive markers |
2 pts with haematoma: 1 pt asymptomatic and 1 pt with transient worsening of neurological symptoms 1 pt with permanent worsening of neurological symptoms |
|
| Haegelen (2010) Lille, France |
Case series (level 4) |
15 pts 5 children and 10 adults |
Neuromate robot | 15/17 (88%) | Not reported | 3 pts with neurological symptoms: 2 pts transient and 1 permanent | 2 pts had repeat biopsies |
| Bekelis (2012) New Hampshire, USA |
Case series (level 4) |
41 pts Mean 60 years (range 33–87 years) 20 male and 21 female |
SurgiScope robot | 44/45 (98%) | Not reported | 5 pts with haematoma: 4 pts asymptomatic and 1 pt that required craniotomy | 4 pts had repeat biopsies |
| Dellaretti (2012) Lille, France |
Cohort study (level 4) |
33 pts | Neuromate robot | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported | Cohort compared 123 transfrontal and 19 transcerebellar approaches with no significant difference found |
| LeFranc (2015) Amiens, France |
Case series (level 4) |
100 pts Median 59 years (range 7–86 years) 67 male and 33 female |
ROSA robot | 97/100 (97%) | Not reported | 6 pts with haematoma: 4 pts asymptomatic and 2 pts with transient neurological symptoms 6 pts with transient worsening of neurological symptoms |
|
| Grimm (2015) Tuebingen and Mainz, Germany |
Case series (level 4) |
37 pts Range 15–83 years 20 male and 17 female |
Renaissance robot | 33/37 (89%) | Not reported | 9 pts with haematoma: 8 pts asymptomatic and 1 pt that required craniotomy | |
| Coca (2016) Strasbourg, France |
Case series (level 4) |
5 pts Mean 9 years (range 5–13 years) 3 male and 2 female |
ROSA robot | 5/5 (100%) | Not reported | 1 pt with transient perioperative bradycardia | |
| Carai (2017) Pavia, Italy |
Case series (level 4) |
7 pts Range 5–13 years 5 female and 2 male |
ROSA robot | 7/7 (100%) | Considered accurate but quantitative data not reported | 2 pts with transient worsening of neurological symptoms | |
| De Benedictis (2017) Parma, Italy |
Case series (level 4) |
26 pts | ROSA robot | 25/26 (96%) | Considered accurate but quantitative data not reported | 2 pts with transient worsening of neurological symptoms | |
| Quick-Weller (2017) Frankfurt, Germany |
Case series (level 4) |
2 pts 4-year-old male and 12-year-old female |
ROSA robot | 2/2 (100%) | Not reported | None reported | |
| Miller (2017) Missouri, USA |
Case series (level 4) |
6 pts Average age 13 years |
ROSA robot | 6/6 (100%) | Not reported | None reported | |
| Minchev (2017) Vienna, Austria |
Case series (level 4) |
17 pts | iSYS1 | 16/17 (94%) | Entry point error: median 1.3 mm (range 0.2–2.6 mm) Target point error: median 0.9 mm (range 0.0–3.1 mm) |
None reported | Use of robot aborted in one operation as error in image registration |
| Dlaka (2017) Zagreb, Croatia |
Case report (level 4) |
1 pt 45 years old |
RONNA G3 | 1/1 (100%) | Entry point error: 2.2 mm Target point error: 2.3 mm |
None reported |
*Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine – Levels of Evidence (2009)