The Exposed Human Brain: Functional Ultrasound Imaging in the Context of Neurosurgery
Without the right intra-operative imaging, removing tumors in a human brain or spine feels like operating in the dark. All while carrying the pressure of the fine line between removing ‘too much’ or ‘too little’, with all the life-altering consequences for the patients in question. A new technique called functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging has the potential to shine further light on this problem to revolutionize these neurosurgical procedures: fUS not only enables discrimination between tumor and healthy tissue based on vascular morphology, but also allows for real-time monitoring of brain functionality. In this talk I will describe our efforts of bringing the fUS technique from lab bench to a new clinical modality including our choices and implementation in data processing, integration within the surgical workflow and validation against techniques such as fMRI and Electro-cortical Stimulation Mapping (ESM).