Aftahy, A. Kaywan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8897-2220
Barz, Melanie
Krauss, Philipp
Liesche, Friederike
Wiestler, Benedikt
Combs, Stephanie E.
Straube, Christoph
Meyer, Bernhard
Gempt, Jens
Article History
Received: 7 August 2020
Accepted: 26 October 2020
First Online: 3 November 2020
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: The local ethics committee of the Technical University Munich, School of Medicine, approved our study (231/20 S-EB). We conducted it in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments []. The requirement for written informed consent was waived by the ethics committee.
: Not applicable.
: JG and Bernhard Meyer BM work as consultants for Brainlab (Brainlab AG, Feldkirchen). In addition, BM works as a consultant for Medtronic, Spineart, Icotec, Relievant and Depuy/Synthes. In these firms, BM acts as a member of the advisory board. Furthermore, BM reports a financial relationship with Medtronic, Ulrich Medical, Brainlab, Spineart, Icotec, Relievant and Depuy/Synthes. He received personal fees and research grants for clinical studies from Medtronic, Ulrich Medical, Brainlab, Icotec and Relievant. All this happened independently of the submitted work. BM holds the royalties/patent for Spineart. All named potential conflicts of interest are unrelated to this study. There are no further conflicts of interest regarding the other authors.