The Continuous Assessment of Cranial Motion in Thermoplastic Masks During CyberKnife Radiosurgery for Trigeminal Neuralgia

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment is characterized by high doses per fraction and extremely steep dose gradients. This requires a great degree of accurate localization to the appropriate treatment position, and continuous immobilization during the treatment session. In the case of Trigeminal Neuralgia (TGN) treatment this is especially true as the very small target volume makes positional accuracy critical. In this study we carried out a quantitative analysis of patient motion during the full treatment fraction within a radiosurgery immobilization mask system. Patient cranial movement was assessed by using the image guidance stereo x-ray cameras on a CyberKnife (CK) M6 robotic radiosurgery system (Accuray, Sunnyvale, CA). A total of five patients received treatments for either right or left TGN. The duration of treatment varied from 24-64 minutes. Orthogonal images were taken every 15 seconds during the treatment to assess patient movement. Approximately 60 stereo images were taken per patient and a total of 560 images were analyzed in this study. The mean absolute movement in each of longitudinal, lateral or vertical directions was approximately 0.3 mm for the duration of the treatment; however, on occasion much greater movement was observed during a fraction. The maximum displacement was in the longitudinal direction and reached 2.4 mm compared to the initial setup. Images taken at the end of the treatment session showed that the patients typically return to a position closer to the original setup position than the maximum excursion that occurred. This data suggests that although this mask system appears stable during much of the treatment session; for some patients there may be momentary patient movements that take place. Frequent imaging and correction can help mitigate the effect of this movement. It is important to understand the limitations of non-invasive mask systems when used for very high precision treatment.