Soft Tissue Tracking during Brain Surgeries
Most of the tissue handled by the surgeon (or by a robotic hand) during brain surgeries is flexible: With the obvious exception of bone, which is rigid, all the structures touched during the surgery change shape and place. For instance, by changing the force applied to the brain, like when the skull is opened, the pressure on the brain changes and, as a consequence, its shape changes too. It is key for the surgeon to know where each point has moved to: if the tumor that needs to be treated