Abstracts

Rationale: To evaluate a novel method for localization of depth electrodes in presurgical assessment of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.Methods: We studied 12 consecutive patients with drug resistant epilepsy in whom depth electrodes were implanted for presurgical evaluation. Electrodes were detected on post-implantation brain CT scans through a semiautomated procedure based on a MATLAB routine (Fig.1). Then, post-implantation CT scans were fused with pre-implantation MRI to localize the electrodes in relation to the cortical structures (Fig.2). Results: In each patient, all electrodes could be correctly localized and visualized in a stereotactic space, thus allowing optimal surgery planning. Conclusions: While our findings need confirmation on larger samples including patients with drug resistant epilepsy, this procedure allowed to localize depth electrodes and to establish the spatial relationship of each electrode to the brain structure, either normal or damaged.