Shift of the Brain during Functional Neurosurgery

Objective : The study investigates the extent of brain shift and its effect on the accuracy of the stereotaxic procedure. Methods : Thirty-five patients underwent 40stereotactic procedures between June 2002 and March 2004. There were 26 males, mean age 59years old. There were 34procedures for Parkinson's disease, 2 for essential tremor, 3 for cerebral palsy, 1 for dystonia. Patients were divided in four groups based on postoperative pneumocephalus : under 5cc [9 procedures], between $5{\sim}10cc$ [13procedures], between $10{\sim}15cc$ [11 procedures] and more than 15cc [7procedures]. The coordinates of the anterior commissure[AC], posterior commissure[PC], and target were defined in pre-and intraoperative magnetic resonance image scans and the amount of air volume was measured with @Target (BrainLab, Heimstetten, Germany]. Results : The mean AC-PC was 26.5mm for patients with less than 5cc, 26.9mm for $5{\sim}10cc$, 25.8mm for $10{\sim}15cc$ and 26.2mm for more than 15cc. The length of AC-PC line and coordinates of AC, PC was also not statistically different, Euclidean distance as well as ${\Delta}x$, ${\Delta}y$, ${\Delta}z$ of AC, PC, and target were also not statistically different among the groups [p>,1]. There was a variance in target of $0.7{\sim}7.6mm$, Euclidean distance of 2.5mm, related to electrophysiology but not to brain-shift. Conclusion : The amount of air accumulated in the intracranial space and compressing the cortical surface has no effect on the localization of subcortical stereotactic target and landmarks.