Assisting Neurosurgeons: Advancing Brain Tumor Surgery with Smartphone Augmented Reality Navigation

Integrating Augmented Reality (AR) into neurosurgical procedures has shown substantial promise in enhancing surgical precision and educational outcomes, building upon previous applications primarily focused on simple visualization tasks. This study extends the current scope by using smartphone-based AR navigation systems tailored to assist neurosurgeons performing brain tumor surgery. Unlike prior efforts, our research developed and validated an AR system that superimposes precise virtual representations of critical anatomical structures, such as the skull and brain, onto a 3D-printed patient model. These models are rendered in transparent materials that improve the visibility and understanding of intricate internal structures, facilitating more intuitive surgical planning and training. Our findings demonstrate that while AR significantly enhances the visualization of anatomical details and the alignment of virtual to physical models, its effectiveness depends on the viewing angle and facial feature distinctiveness, achieving the highest accuracy in frontal views. These results underscore improvements over traditional AR systems, which often struggle with accurate depth perception and spatial orientation, and highlight the challenges of broad integration.