Radiolucent Skull Clamps for Intra-Operative Imaging: A Technical Note

Conventionally, surgery and procedural-based radiology are performed on different premises. With advances in imaging technology, the operating room is rapidly being transformed into an intraoperative imaging suite. Diagnostic imaging in conjunction with surgery has great utility and by all accounts has great future potential. During the last decade, cone beam computed tomography (CT) scanners have been introduced and have made intraoperative imaging more feasible because these scanners can be made less bulky. The current usefulness of intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or CT for neurosurgery, however, is impaired by the lack of completely radiolucent skull clamps, causing image artifacts. Metal artifacts are particularly problematic, given that they lead to a considerably higher image quality degradation factor for cone beam CT scanners than for conventional CT scanners. Here, we describe our experience with near-radiolucent skull clamps and their associated problems and discuss future improvements to facilitate high-quality image guidance in the field of neurosurgery.