Historical perspective

Abstract

In 1976, Bergstrom and Greitz devised a helmet-like plastic fixation device [1]. With this custom-fitted device in place, a metal trajectory ring was placed on the patient’s head, and a CT scan was obtained. Limited intracranial instrumentation could then be accomplished. Several years later, Brown developed a system that utilized an acrylic frame and CT data with three-dimensional graphics [2]. In 1980, Perry et aI. described a CT-dependent frame with diagonal rods that served as fiducial reference points for the scanner computers. Since stereotaxis was accomplished in the CT scanner itself, repeat scans could be obtained during surgery to confirm the position of the probe tip.