An MRI Compatible MR-Guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Neonatal Neurosurgery Platform for Intraventricular Hemorrhage

EasyChair Preprint no. 8158

Abstract

Intraventricular Hemorrhage (IVH) is a serious neurovascular complication in preterm infants that can lead to blood clots forming within the cerebral ventricles and blockage of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The current standard of care is an invasive surgery to insert a shunt to remove CSF rather than direct treatment of these blood clots. Magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRgHIFU) has been shown as a non-invasive treatment to lyse these blood clots. We have developed a magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound for the neonatal brain, which facilitates ergonomic patient positioning and directs treatment through their anterior fontanelle. The platform’s targeting ability through simulated brain matter was optimized and then its efficacy at lysing blood clots was validated using brain-mimicking phantoms inside a clinical MRI. Results demonstrated the platform’s high targeting ability and clot lysis efficacy when targeting through the simulated brain matter. These results served as an initial verification of the platform and showed promise towards its final application in a neonatal brain.

Keyphrases: focused ultrasound, Histotripsy, Hydrocephalus, Intraventricular Hemorrhage, Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound, Neurosurgical Robotics, Thermosensitive Brain-Mimicking Phantoms

@Booklet{EasyChair:8158,
  author = {Hrishikesh Raghuram and Benjamin Keunen and Nathan Soucier and Thomas Looi and Samuel Pichardo and Adam Waspe and James Drake},
  title = {An MRI Compatible MR-Guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Neonatal Neurosurgery Platform for Intraventricular Hemorrhage},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 8158},

  year = {EasyChair, 2022}}