Dr. Sameer Sheth and collaborators develop a holographic tool to facilitate interactive surgical planning

Wed, 01/31/2024

The Cain Labs director, Dr. Sameer Sheth, and collaborators at Duke University, UT Southwestern, and Case Western Reserve University have developed a holographic stereotactic neurosurgery research tool (HoloSNS) that integrates patient-specific brain models into a group-based visualization environment for interactive surgical planning using connectomic hypotheses.HoloSNS currently runs on the HoloLens 2 platform and it enables remote networking between headsets. This allowed us to perform neurosurgical planning group meetings with study co-investigators distributed across the country.

The team, based in different geographical locations, used HoloSNS to plan stereo-encephalogram (EEG) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrode placements for each patient participating in a clinical trial for the treatment of depression. Each patient model consisted of multiple components of scientific data and anatomical reconstructions of the head and brain (both patient-specific and atlas-based), which far exceed the data integration capabilities of traditional neurosurgical planning workstations. This allowed the investigators to prospectively discuss and evaluate the positioning of the electrodes based on novel connectomic hypotheses. The 3D nature of the surgical procedure, brain imaging data, and connectomic modeling results all highlighted the utility of employing holographic visualization to support the design of unique clinical experiments to explore brain network modulation with DBS.

The article, published in Brain Stimulation, can be found here..