Intraoperative neurosonography revisited: effective neuronavigation in pediatric neurosurgery

Intraoperative ultrasonography (IOUS) is a widely used noninvasive method to evaluate the morphology, vasculature, and pathologies of the brain. The advantages of IOUS include realtime depiction of neuroanatomy, accurate localization and characterization of a lesion, reduced surgical exploration and surgical time, and presumably decreased patient morbidity. IOUS is useful in the intraoperative monitoring of lesion resection as well as intraoperative localization and characterization of focal parenchymal lesions. This review aims to provide an overview of the clinical application of IOUS in pediatric intracranial neurosurgery.