Ultra-high field template-assisted target selection for deep brain stimulation surgery

C Lau J, MacDougall KW, Arango M, Peters TM, Parrent AG, Khan AR.

World Neurosurg. 2017 Apr 17.

Background

Template and atlas guidance are fundamental aspects of stereotactic neurosurgery. The recent availability of ultra-high field (7 Tesla) magnetic resonance imaging has enabled in vivo visualization at the submillimeter scale. In this Doing More with Less article, we describe our experiences with integrating ultra-high field template data into the clinical workflow to assist with target selection in deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgical planning.

Methods

The creation of a high-resolution 7T template is described, generated from group data acquired at our center. A computational workflow was developed for spatially aligning the 7T template with standard clinical data and furthermore, integrating the derived imaging volumes into the surgical planning workstation.

Results

We demonstrate that our methodology can be effective for assisting with target selection in 2 cases: unilateral internal pallidum DBS for painful dystonia and bilateral subthalamic nucleus DBS for Parkinson's disease.

Conclusions

In this article, we have described a workflow for the integration of high-resolution in vivo ultra-high field templates into the surgical navigation system as a means to assist with DBS planning. The method does not require any additional cost or time to the patient.

Future work will include prospectively evaluating different templates and their impact on target selection.

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