Pros And Cons Of Stereotaxic Surgery

Stereotaxic surgery is a three dimensional surgical technique used to locate lesions deep within the tissues of the brain and to perform some actions such as biopsy, ablation, and radio surgery etc. (https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/neurosurgery/for-patients/treatments/stereotactic-brain-surgery.aspx) British scientists, a physician and neurosurgeon Sir Victor Horsley and a physiologist, Robert H. Clarke, in the year 1908 first developed the stereotactic method at University College, London hospital. Formerly called as Horsley-Clarke apparatus, this method was first used for animal experimentation which implemented a three orthogonal axis system for the experiment.

Due to the lack of ability to visualize intracranial autonomic detail via radiography using the Horsley-Clarke model for studying the human brain, contrasted brain radiography made the process of conceptualization of intracranial anatomic reference easy. The pineal gland and the foramen of Monro were used as landmarks by the first stereotactic devices. Later, the anatomic reference points such as

With a frame based technique, application to the coordinate system to the skull allows the brain to be described with Cartesian coordinates.

The stereotaxic procedure aims at relieving the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The surgery involves implanting the electrodes in the subthalamic nucleus attached to a device that allows the patient to electrically stimulate the brain through the electrodes. According to the study done by Simuni and Speelman et al (2002), deep brain stimulation is as effective as brain lesions in subduing tremors and has fewer adverse side effects. This suggests that either the stimulation or lesions release tremors have an inhibitory effect on subthalamic neurons, but this hypothesis is yet to be confirmed.