Clinical Theme
Enhancing Surgical Effectiveness
Surgery is an option with high rates of seizure freedom for those who continue to have seizures despite anti-epileptic medications . Although it would be expected that quality of life (QOL) should improve after surgery, years of suffering with such a chronic neurological condition, makes adjusting to a seizure-free life very difficult.
Our goal is to thus enhance surgical effectiveness by improving post-operative QOL thorough counselling. To do this we suggest the novel concept of pre-epilepsy surgery counselling.
Optical Characterization of Brain Tumor Tissue
The goal of neurosurgery in brain tumor resection is to maximize the extent of resection (EOR) as EOR is a positive prognostic factor with patient outcome. To achieve maximal EOR, surgeons rely on imaging modalities that can provide them with contrast between tumor and healthy brain tissues. Current modalities such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT), and Histology are limited in their ability to provide such contrasts in a rapid and intraoperative setting. RS and PSOCT are rapid, non-destructive, and label-free imaging modalities that has been demonstrated to be able to identify and distinguish tumor from healthy brain tissues. However, this has mostly been demonstrated in the research setting. For this study, we aim to investigate RS (Raman Spectroscopy) and PSOCT (Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography) systems (Synaptive Medical Inc.) that are designed to be used in the clinical setting in the OR by imaging freshly excised ex vivo brain tissues from patients. By demonstrating RS and PSOCT’s capability in creating contrast between tissue types in an ex vivo but clinical setting, it will provide the data critical for the long term implementation of an in situ imaging platform (Reveal). An in situ imaging platform of RS and PSOCT could ultimately provide surgeons with the intraoperative imaging tools that can allow maximum EOR while preserving eloquent healthy brain tissues and thereby improve patient prognosis and outcome.
