Surgical planning systems that automatically assess different potential trajectory paths and identify candidate trajectories for surgical systems

A method of identifying one or more candidate trajectories for a trajectory guide held by a stereotactic frame for surgical planning, comprising:

• providing at least one image of a brain of a head of a patient;
• electronically registering a digital brain atlas to the at least one image;
• electronically determining regions in the brain of the patient that are to be avoided;
• electronically dividing a surface of the head of the patient into defined sub-areas that correspond to potential entry sites into the brain;
• and
• electronically identifying a candidate trajectory corresponding to a trajectory that extends between a respective sub-area and a target treatment volume and that does not pass through any of the determined regions to be avoided.

A computer program product for facilitating an image-guided surgical procedure, the computer program product comprising:

• at least one processor configured to:
• provide at least one image of a head of a patient;
• register a digital brain atlas to the at least one image;
• determine regions in a brain of the head of the patient that are to be avoided;
• divide a surface of the head of the patient into defined sub-areas that correspond to potential entry sites into the brain;
• and
• for at least some of the defined sub-areas,
• identify a trajectory from a respective sub-area that does not pass through any of the determined regions to be avoided and that extends to a target treatment region to define one or more candidate trajectories;
• and/or
• ray cast virtual rays with a respective virtual ray that extends from a respective sub-area to the target treatment region and that does not pass through any of the determined regions to be avoided to define one or more candidate trajectories.