Safe Stereotactic Biopsy for Basal Ganglia Lesions: Avoiding Injury to the Basal Perforating Arteries.

BACKGROUND: One of the most serious complications of stereotactic biopsy is postoperative symptomatic hemorrhage due to injury to the basal perforating arteries such as the lenticulostriate arteries neighboring the basal ganglia lesions.

OBJECTIVES: A new target-planning method was proposed to reduce hemorrhagic complications by avoiding injury to the perforating arteries.

METHODS: Three-dimensional 3-T time-of-flight (3D 3-T TOF) imaging was applied to delineate the basal perforating arteries such as the lenticulostriate arteries. The incidence of postoperative hemorrhage in basal ganglia cases was compared between a new method using 3D 3-T TOF and a conventional target-planning method based on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance images obtained by 1.5-T scanning.

RESULTS: 3D 3-T TOF imaging could delineate the basal perforating arteries sufficiently in target planning. No postoperative hemorrhage occurred with the new method (n = 10), while 6 postoperative hemorrhages occurred with the conventional method (n = 14). The new method significantly reduced the occurrence of postoperative hemorrhages (p = 0.017).

CONCLUSIONS: 3D 3-T TOF MR imaging with contrast medium administration provides useful information about the perforating arteries and allows safe stereotactic biopsy of basal ganglia lesions.