Image-guided surgical planning using anatomical landmarks in the retrosigmoid approach

Objective The suboccipital lateral or retrosigmoid approach is the main neurosurgical approach to the cerebellopontine angle (CPA). It is mainly used in the treatment of CPA tumors and vascular decompression of cranial nerves. A prospective study using navigation registered with anatomical landmarks in order to identify the transverse and sigmoid sinuses junction (TSSJ) was carried out in a series of 30 retrosigmoid craniotomies. The goal of this study was to determine the accuracy of this navigation technique and to establish the relationship between the location of the asterion and the TSSJ.