Image guided neurosurgery at the MNI

Dr. Louis Collins

Jan. 24, 2020, 2:30 p.m. - Jan. 24, 2020, 3:25 p.m.

Burnside Hall 1B39

Hosted by: Kaleem Siddiqi


Almost all types of brain tumours require neurosurgery. The longest survival times are achieved when the surgeon removes as much of the brain tumour as possible; post-surgical radiotherapy and chemotherapy are optimal when a safe maximal resection has been achieved. However, sometimes removing a brain tumour can be difficult, either due to visual similarity with healthy brain tissue or because it is near brain regions essential for normal function. This results in residual tumour in up to 82% of operated cases. 
 
At the NeuroImaging and Surgical Technology (NIST) lab at the Montreal Neurological Institute, our goal is to develop and validate innovative surgical tools to assist the surgeon to identify healthy and diseased brain in order to achieve complete tumour resection where safely possible.  We use image registration to align MRI, CT, functional and vascular data together, classification techniques are used to identify brain tissues and pathology, computer vision/segmentation methods are used to identify specific brain structures.  This data is used to generate 3D models of anatomy, blood vessels and pathology to help the surgeon plan surgery.
 
During surgery, this data is integrated into a neuro navigation platform - a GPS for brain surgery.  Infrared stereo cameras are used to track the patient, the images and the surgical tools with mm precision. However, the brain moves during surgery and invalidates the patient-image registration.  We use intraoperative ultrasound to correct for tissue deformation and augmented reality methods to visualize the results.  

Speaker's Bio: Dr. Collins is a full professor in the departments of Neurology & Neurosurgery and Biomedical Engineering, associate member of the Center for Intelligent Machines at McGill, and associate member of the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging. He teaches BDME650, the Advanced Medical Imaging course in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He heads the NeuroImaging and Surgical Technologies (NIST) laboratory in the Brain Imaging Centre at the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University.