Development of Stereotactic Surgery

Stereotactic surgery was first published in 1908 by the British neurosurgeon Victor Horsley and the physiologist Robert Clarke, who devised a three dimensional coordinate system for locating precise targets inside the body from external reference points. The technique allows a surgeon to reach a small, deep structure, most often within the brain, to perform a biopsy, an ablation, an injection, or the placement of an electrode, without opening up the full surrounding area. Modern stereotactic surgery has been extended with imaging methods such as X-ray, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging to guide the coordinate system with much greater precision than Horsley and Clarke's original frame allowed.