Assessment of respiration-induced vertebral motion in prone-positioned patients during general anaesthesia

Robotic techniques are beginning to be applied to spine surgery, but safety is always a concern. Respiration-induced motion during surgery could lead to inaccurate robot-assisted pedicle screw placement. Accurate positional information for vertebral movement is needed to develop new techniques to eliminate or adjust respiration-induced motion and improve the accuracy of robotic spine surgery.An optical tracking system was attached to patients' backs to track the motion of the C3, C7, T7, T12, L4 and S1 vertebral bodies. Monitoring was done in the operating room, with patients under general anaesthesia.Measured motion (peak to peak) during breathing was greater in T7 (2.2593 mm), T12 (2.2665 mm) and L4 (1.6054 mm) than in other segments. Anterior-posterior motion was greater than either left-right or superior-inferior motion.During general anaesthesia, significant motion occurs in vertebral bodies, caused by breathing, especially in the lower thoracic and lumbar segments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.