Guiding Deep Brain Stimulation Neurosurgery using Polarization Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PS-OCT)

In this work, a Polarization Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PS-OCT) system is described with the ability of navigation in neurosurgery. Of great importance in neurosurgery is guiding Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) needle probe which needs precise and detailed navigation within the brain tissue. PS-OCT is a powerful imaging tool that can be used to obtain detailed information within the tissue at different depths based on the low coherent light interferometry and birefringence properties of the tissue by exploiting polarimetric methods. It is noteworthy to mention that PS-OCT exhibits great resolution and sensitivity based on the tissue birefringence related parameters (retardation and optic axis orientation) especially for the precise placement of DBS probe in the subthalamic nucleus (STN), which is entirely surrounded by myelinated fiber bundles that are highly birefringent. In general, images obtained using this system can provide a spatial map of the anisotropic structure of the tissue.