Surgical Robot-Enhanced Implantation of Intracranial Depth Electrodes for Single Neuron Recording Studies in Patients with Medically Refractory Epilepsy: A Technical Note.

Objective: Single neuron or unit recording enables researchers to measure the electrophysiologic responses of single neurons using a microelectrode system. This approach is widely used in cognitive science and has become more widespread in humans with the use of hybrid (micro-within-macrowire) depth electrodes that enable the implantation of microwires into the brain parenchyma.
Methods: The authors describe their surgical technique in a total of 7 patients with intractable epilepsy who underwent robot-enhanced stereoencephalography in which both standard (nonhybrid) and hybrid depth electrodes were used for invasive chronic monitoring.
Results: The technique and accuracy of the procedure were evaluated with a total of 84 depth electrodes (46 hybrid, 38 standard) in 7 patients. No major complications, such as intracranial hemorrhage, infection or cerebrospinal fluid leakage, occurred regardless of the type of electrode used.
Conclusions: The addition of hybrid depth electrodes for the purpose of in vivo single neuron recording in robot-enhanced stereoencephalography procedures is safe and does not impact the accuracy of targeting or patient safety.
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