TEACHING IMAGE-GUIDED STEREOTAXIC METHODOLOGY AND FUNCTIONAL NEUROANATOMY OF THE THALAMUS AND PALLIDUM - A SIMPLE EX-VIVO TECHNIQUE

A simple and cheap model that enables on site, ex vivo, but very pract ical, learning of frame-based image-guided stereotactic technique and methodology, and the functional anatomy of the pallidum and thalamus i s described. Using a cadaver skull, a specially prepared, formalin-fix ed cadaver brain, and a modified stereotactic probe application of a s tereotactic frame to the cranium, fiducial point acquisition, target p oint acquisition, computation of both are and probe depth settings, an d verification of target point accuracy can all be practiced. If dienc ephalic targets are selected for targeting with ball bearings then sec tion of the cadaver brains, and study of a human thalamic stereotactic atlas provides an excellent and clinically relevant method of learnin g functionally important thalamic and pallidal anatomy. The method and techniques are described for CT imaging using the Brown-Roberts-Wells frame, but they are equally applicable to other frame types.