Mohammad Maarouf - Introduction to robotics in minimally invasive neurosurgery

It comprehensively reviews the field from both the anatomical aspect (vascular, spine) and the technological aspect (stereotactic, endoscopic).

It covers the timeline from its beginnings in the 1980s (and groundwork laid decades earlier) to the future of neurosurgical robotics (artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), brain-to-brain interface (BTBI)).

Each chapter can be read stand-alone. Although this results in some overlap and repetition, the reader can quickly access the specific information desired.

The documentation is exemplary. Most chapters have dozens of references, up-to-date and relevant; one chapter has 147 references!

Minimally invasive access to the nervous system will undoubtedly progress. As Rodolfo Llinas (Emeritus Chair of Neurophysiology at New York University) envisaged in 2005, one can drive the endovascular pathways not only along the superhighways of the internal carotid and other large arteries for coiling and stenting but also along the alleyways of the capillaries that reach every nook and cranny of the nervous system. He showed one can record and stimulate the nervous system utilizing electrodes within the blood vessels. And, as suggested by Kendall Lee at the Mayo Clinic, one can poke a micron-size catheter through the capillary wall to investigate (and manipulate!) the brain parenchymared blood cells are ten times the diameter of the penetrating catheter and thus will not leak out.

Neuroprostheses will evolve to replace parts for nervous systems defects. Researchers in Italy, the Netherlands, and the USA have developed a prototype bioinspired artificial synapse. Being able to replace defective neurons, nerve fibers, and synapseseither with artificial prostheses or stem-cell derived replacementswill revolutionize the treatment of nervous system disorders.

The brain-cloud interface (B/CI) and brain-to-brain interface (BTBI) will take neurosurgical robotics into the realm of neurosurgical crowdsourcing. A group at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA, has shown that one person being monitored by EEG canthrough the internet and transcranial magnetic stimulationremotely control the motor function of another person. In essence, the second person becomes a slave of the first.