Catheter-based polarimetric imaging to complement MRI for deep brain stimulation neurosurgery

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Annually, around 23 million people worldwide suffer from brain disorders, with 14 million requiring surgery for issues such as brain tumors, traumatic brain injuries, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD).1 Our focus is on deep brain stimulation (DBS), a stereotactic neurosurgical procedure that involves implanting electrodes in specific brain regions to regulate abnormal neural activity.2 This technique, introduced by Benabid,3 is primarily used to treat movement disorders such as PD, dystonia, and essential tremor. MRI is an essential part of neurosurgical planning, where a pre-operative MRI (pre-op MRI) of the patient’s head is used to identify critical targets. DBS targets vary according to the disorder being treated: for instance, the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and internal pallidum (GPi) are commonly targeted for PD, the ventral intermediate thalamic nucleus (VIM) for essential tremor, and the caudate nucleus (CD) and the internal capsule (IC) for severe forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).4 – 7 Once the target of interest is identified in MR images, its stereotactic coordinates are determined relative to anatomical landmarks such as the anterior and posterior commissures and to the stereotaxic frame placed on the patient’s head. After identifying the target, final adjustments and confirmation of the target may be performed in the operating room through microelectrode recording (MER) and macrostimulation when available.5
Funding Information
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2020-06936)
  • National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (P41EB-015903)
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR PJT 470155)

This publication has 55 references indexed in Scilit: