Murali Guthikonda, M.D.

Mission: Our mission is to research, develop and use state of the art software, hardware, and visualization techniques to optimize surgical outcomes for brain surgery patients through complete resection with minimum damage to surrounding tissues and eloquent brain and vascular structures.

Strategic Research Plan:

• We will focus our research efforts on intelligent planning and visualization for neurosurgery systems. Our research will be applied and technologically advanced, with the goal of maximizing our treatment options using robotic and image-guided technology for preplanning treatment protocols, and continuing to use this technology during neurosurgical procedures as we do now, in a increasingly more sophisticated way.
• The research will incorporate more advanced computer-assisted surgery visualization hardware and software such as Augmented Reality.
• Our research seeks to advance the development of cost-effective technologies that support seamless integration of the patient's image data, the surgeon's operative strategy, and an intelligent computer-based system.
• This research will focus on the use of medical informatics (neural networks, artificial intelligence) along with brain image data and brain atlases to assist the surgeon in optimizing and visualizing the surgical plans and hence improving the outcomes for these complicated operations.
• We also plan on including a multi-disciplinary team by involving Wayne State University Medical School researchers, bioengineers, computer scientists, and electrical engineers and team with surgical instrumentation, robotics, and data visualization companies.

In order to plan the most effective, optimal, and safest surgical corridor for the treatment of tumors and lesions, a vast amount of data needs to be assimilated and visualized by the surgeon both pre- and intraoperatively. The patient can be severely impaired or even die if a critical structure is injured because of errors in surgical trajectory planning or instrument positioning. The relatively new field of Computer and Robotics -based Stereotatic Neurosurgery blends the use of computer-based medical imaging data with real-time instrument position data to assist surgeons in localizing and removing tumors. Moreover, robots are starting to be utilized for Neurosurgery; our group was the first in the United States to use robots during surgery. Robots enable surgeons to reach specific targets in the brain steadily and accurately. Although localization of targets is now possible with the needed accuracy, planning the correct trajectories and direct visualization of targets and data on the patients (Augmented Reality) are still active areas of research. We propose to extend current localization technology (both robotic and infrared-guided systems) by adding computer-assisted intelligent surgery planning and visualization.

Specific Aims (5 and 10 year plans):

For continued growth, we have made a strategic rule to submit at least three sizable grants every year. Any grants that are rejected will be resubmitted. Research efforts will include the following: Neurosurgery Robotics, the use of Visual Retinal Display for Augmented Reality, using Intelligent Planning computer techniques and Brain Atlas information to assist neurosurgeons in planning operative treatment.

Five-Year Plan:

We plan on growing our group by two - three new grants in the area of Robotics, Image-Guided Visualization, and Automation in Neurosurgery. We will also maintain our NASA grant funding by ensuring our research focuses on NASA operational needs. Our areas of research will extend into intraoperative visualization techniques that include Interventional MRI techniques, Artificial Intelligence, and Advanced Training systems for Neurosurgery.

Ten-Year Plan:

Our research is anticipated to lead to a high technology operating room of the future which will include Telepresense technology, up-to-date visualization techniques, and computerized planning technology.